Fantasy Sports Blog

Thursday Night Football

2008-11-08T11:10:00.000-08:00

I hate it. I hate everything about it. I mean, think about it, what is there to like about it. At 1st, maybe you'd think it would be cool to have a game earlier on in the week so you don't have to wait ALL week for football to happen. BUT there are so many more things to hate about having football on Thursday as opposed to Sunday/Monday.

1st and foremost, it's on the NFL Network, which I'm sure many of us don't get considering it's not a part of many basic cable packages. I'm not going to spend extra money just to watch one more game per week. Then there's the fact that the game is actually on Thursday, which isn't nearly as cool as it seems. I'd much rather wait the 3 extra days so I actually know which of my fantasy players will actually play. I also HATE that shortened week garbage. It makes things unbelievably unpredictable. You can't guess gameplans nor the readiness of players. Take this 1st week for example, Denver @ Cleveland. You had a rookie runningback on the Denver side, who has only had 3 carries all season, taking the starting job on a shortened week against a decent Browns defense. Who the hell could have predicted what was going to happen? It was a crapshoot play no matter how you looked at it. Same scenario on the Browns' side. Romeo Crennel decided to give the starting job to Brady Quinn after his team had been led to a 3-5 record behind former starter Derek Anderson. During a normal week, I would have said Quinn is a solid start to above average start considering he was starting off against a putrid Denver defense. Instead, Brady Quinn was another crapshoot play. Both Torain and Quinn ended up with solid games, but who could have predicted that (NOTE: Torain is reportedly out of the rest of the season due to an ACL tear). Point is, having games on Thursday nights makes things extremely difficult to predict. It puts teams at a disadvantage in terms of practice time and preparation. I just don't see how this is a good idea...

Just a sidenote, in one of my leagues (12 person with PPR and a flex spot), I started both Quinn and Torain. My other QBs were Roethlisberger and Frerotte. I actually thought to myself that Frerotte would be the "safest" play, but Roethlisberger's injury update wasn't given until yesterday that he practiced and would be probable. I took a risk on Quinn (239 passing yards, 2 TDs) and it paid off. The other play on Torain as my flex was tough too. On Thursday, I still had no clue what was going on with Steven Jackson, one of my other options this week for my flex play, and took the risk on the hyped 5th round rookie runningback that none of us have seen before. Both plays obviously paid off, but I was sweating the decision all week and now I'm sweating my players for Sunday too. Fantasy football is awesome until times like now. All you think about is your players and how they must perform in order for you to achieve one of those elusive playoff spots in your respective league. If you lose, you feel it all week until your next matchup, or if you're eliminated because of it, you keep coming up with injuries and excuses until you get tired of them yourself. If you win, you are just hoping for another win next week and the week after that until it's all over whether you win of lose. Realistically, no one in your league is satisfied unless they win it all... and there's only one of those guys in each league every year. This is why we love fantasy football - for the trash talk, the constant complaining and the reason to hate one member every year. It's addicting and probably bad for our health in the long run, but stopping isn't really an option. Good luck during the stretch run and in the fantasy playoffs should you make it that far

The NBA is BACK

2008-11-04T14:06:00.000-08:00

And so are my articles. They'll be a bit different from last year. I probably won't have a new post every night. Simply put, I'd be writing all night if I did. I'm in a [personal record] ridiculous amount of fantasy leagues this year including 8 total football leagues and 9 basketball ones. Needless to say, I will be pretty busy keeping up with all of those myself as is, but I will try to write on BIG moves as I see fit. And here we go...

I hope you've heard about the Pistons/Nuggets blockbuster trade at this point. Personally, I love it for both teams from a fantasy perspective. The Nuggets don't have the versatility they had before with Iverson, but JR Smith will be a starter now and we already know how explosive he is in limited minutes off the bench. Now he should be playing 30+ min/game consistently. The addition of McDyess would have hurt Nene's value a bit, but reports are hinting that McDyess will be bought out and signed elsewhere. If that's the case, Nene and Kenyon Martin's value don't change. In fact, their touches should increase with the departure of AI, perhaps increasing productivity. Also, I shouldn't have to remind you, but Carmelo Anthony was leading the league in scoring last time he was playing on an Iverson-less Denver team (remember before that MSG "brawl" and 'Melo got suspended?). I would put Carmelo up with the top scorers in the league now, if not THE top scorer. On the Pistons' side, the guy this could hurt is Rip Hamilton. I could easily see Rip coming off the bench at some point this season to play the "Manu Ginobili" role. He'll still get his minutes and touches, but not starting would bump his value down slightly. Iverson's value might also take a hit. I can't imagine him scoring 25+ppg at this stage in his career and moving from a running team to a half court oriented team. One of my preseason favorites, however, Rodney Stuckey, may be the big winner from all this. We already knew the Pistons love the upside of this kid. Now it seems like they're willing to commit to him being their future starting point guard. Iverson's $20.8 million contract expires after this season and Stuckey will be the man. Detroit will give him as much run as they can this year and in the future.

To sum it up:
Trade winners: Carmelo Anthony, JR Smith, Kenyon Martin, Nene, Linas Kleiza, Rodney Stuckey

Trade losers: Allen Iverson, Anthony Carter, Rip Hamilton

Game 4

2008-06-14T23:55:00.000-07:00

One of the most incredible games I've ever seen in my life. I'd just like to get that out of the way. To be honest, I was actually rooting for the Lakers to win this series and besides the fact that I picked them, I legitimately wanted to see Kobe cement his legacy as a top 5 GOAT player. That does not seem to be the case however. No top GOAT player (now known as the top 5 GOATP) would ever allow his team to achieve a 24 point lead in the 2nd half of a home game only to see it shrink and eventually extinguished. Kobe allowed this and no matter what he eventually does in his career from this point on, this Game 4 of the Finals will always be remembered in his career.

Honestly, Kobe is actually beginning to grow on me. He's a controversial character who can make any situation become a questionable one referring to himself. He could just answer a simple question of his favorite color and people would hound him for it. No other player in the NBA can speak to that flaw and I love that a player like Kobe (undoubtedly the BEST player in the WORLD) can be judged in such a distinct manner. He's a great player, but like he said in the Steven A. Smith interview, "Let me be ME!". And that has a magnanimous truth to it. He can not be MJ because he doesn't have the trust in his teammates nor the charisma to be such an electric figure on and off the court.

The Lakers WILL lose this series and it's not because of Kobe's talent, it's because of Kobe's inability to assess a situation. He can't make the correct play in the 2nd half of a tightly contested game because he only understands that he's the one to make things happen. Michael understood that upon entering the final crucial moments of a game, to trust his teammates to be where they should be and to defer to them in order to win the grand prize. After all of the Lakers' struggles this past season, Kobe still doesn't get that. As much as he wants to win the games, he still believes that the only way to do so is with him taking that last shot, no matter how big the stage. He still wants that spotlight and until he understands that giving his teammate the winning shot means more than anything else, he won't achieve the level of play that those before him have understood.

I hope that Kobe can achieve this one day (perhaps even next season) and with the help of a legendary coach like Phil Jackson, I don't doubt that he will. Once he understands this step, he will become an all-time great. In many eyes he already is, but in my honest opinion, he has one step to go before he becomes the undisputed 2nd best player in NBA history. He must trust his teammates, not just in speech, but in demonstration.

Lakers down 0-2???

2008-06-09T21:50:00.001-07:00

Well, I haven't made a mid-series post and I'm not really starting now. Just wanted to share some ideas from a passionate Laker fan, my buddy (we'll just call him G). Remember, these are G's words, not mine:

"While it is hard to stray away from the Laker bias that has exponentially accumulated throughout the years…DF with .4 seconds remaining or Horry ending the Sacramento Queen’s playoff runs…I will try to be as objective as possible…

A recipe for the rest of the series in my opinion is:

Game 3: A must win for the Lakers, which will only be done through great defense...they must force Boston’s role players like Powe, Brown and Cassel to struggle...Doc will quickly lose confidence in, at least, Powe as someone that can't get it done on the road.

Game 4: due to the lack of role player performance in game 3 for the C’s, Doc messes with his rotation and Boston doesn’t find a rhythm in the game and gets blown out.

Game 5: kobe and pau dominate in a game that cements their status as elite championship caliber players and the lakers win a hard fought game with clutch play in the 4th quarter

Game 6: boston opens up the game very well but the lakers take control of the game by the mid-3rd and close the game out in the garden

A few important things that must be done throughout this 4 game sweep (unbiased like I said) luke needs to be kept off the floor and radman needs to play bench minutes with ariza starting and odom playing better ball. Another key is “The Machine”-like shooting from the 3pt like by Sasha."

Back to me. As far as I can tell, these are pretty ideal thoughts for a Laker fan. I picked the Lakers in 6 before the series began and although I believe this is still possible, I don't think it's likely anymore. I'll stick with my guns though until it's not possible anymore.

Lakers/Celtics Preview

2008-06-05T11:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it's the day we've all been waiting for - Lakers, Celtics in a best of 7 for it all. There are so many storylines that have been overdone so I'm just going to preview this series by looking at many of the possible matchups and pick a winner.

First let's remember how both teams got to this point. Both teams went through their fair share of difficulties in these playoffs, but if it's been possible, the Lakers have gotten through this deep West playoff field as strongly as any team could have shown. Everyone thought that Denver had a shot at beating LA because the Lakers didn't have Bynum back yet. Well, Bynum's not going to return now and LA's in the finals. Moreover, they completely dominated a talented Nuggets team that looked like they didn't belong in the same league. The next round, people thought Utah might be the best team in the league (for whatever reason) and didn't think the Deron Williams/Carlos Boozer would be too much to handle. It was also said that the combination of Ronnie Brewer/Matt Harpring/Kyle Korver (KYLE KORVER?!?!?) could "contain" Kobe. Then obviously came the defending Champs, and at this point, even I thought the Lakers were susceptible to a disappointing end to their long, surprising season. There was no answer for Tim Duncan, the Lakers didn't have enough experience, but in the end Kobe was the one who was unstoppable. He took 11 free throws in the entire series, but still scored 30+ points/game. I would not have thought that to be possible especially against the stingy Spurs defense featuring Bruce Bowen as a perimeter defender, but Kobe welcomed the challenge. Now they face a similarly built team in the Boston Celtics, who went through their own struggles.

The Celtics were widely picked to beat the Hawks in a sweep, or at the very worst, in a 5 game series. This was not the case. Instead Boston had its deep playoff run in jeopardy as a young Hawks team extended the 66 win Celtics to a 1st round game 7. I personally was shocked, but Boston won game 7 easily at home and moved on. Then came the defending Eastern Conference Champions, the Lebrons. I actually thought this would be the breakthrough series for Boston, but the Cavs somehow extended the series to 7 games as well, which turned out to be a great game, a legendary battle between two of the great closers in the game, Paul Pierce
and Lebron James, a battle, a game... that I missed. That's not the point though. The point is that Boston found another way to prevail and proved that Home Court advantage does mean something. Anyways, then came the Eastern Conference Finals in which the 2 teams that were on a crash course all season, finally met. The Pistons and the Celtics. People at this point were already doubting the C's. They can't win a road game, they have no rotation, they can't score... The pessimism got to a climax once Detroit won game 2 in Boston. Then everyone thought there was no way Boston could come back. I said before the series began that both teams are way too good to win all home games. I thought the series would go 7 games with each team winning 1 road game, which means Boston would advance. Boston did even better however. They showed that perhaps the long series in rounds 1 and 2 might have done something for their collective experience and ended up taking 2 games in Detroit to take the series in 6.

Now that the past is out of the way, the matchups are an interesting factor. KG proves as that Duncan-like presence for Boston, but unless he asserts himself the way Timmy does, the Lakers will be fine. KG has shown again and again that he's got the talent and ability to take over games, he just doesn't have the mindset or selfishness to actually do it. With the rest of the matchups, the only one that sticks out is how the Celtics will try and guard Kobe. Boston was the best defensive team in the league in the regular season and even though it seems like they have the personnel to guard premier swingmen like Kobe with the likes of James Posey, Paul Pierce, Tony Allen, etc... they haven't had to go up against Kobe in a long series before. The Spurs in the previous series have had long series with Kobe before and as seen, still couldn't do anything about him. Overall, I think both teams have great chemistry and have very balanced, talented rosters, but one team has Kobe. The other team should have a closer gap because KG should close that a bit, but the fact is he doesn't. He doesn't let the game come to him like Kobe does at the end of games and as alluded to before, he doesn't take over. In fact, he seems to push it away. On my Championship team, I don't want my main man with that kind of personality. Paul Pierce will take over games, but he's not Kobe Bryant.

Prediction: Lakers in 6

Road Woes

2008-05-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

So it's about halfway through the 2nd round of the 2008 NBA Playoffs and I've been hearing a lot about road struggles of teams and can provide and pretty simple explanation - inexperience. So far in the 2nd round a total of ONE road game has been won. I think the experience factor is catching up to teams. In the 1st round, generally it won't show as much because matchups work out so that one team is just generally better than the other. In the round, it's easy to see. 7 of the 8 teams remaining are either young or inexperienced in playing with each other. The exception being Detroit and not by coincidence, they are the one team with a road win. Let's take a look:

LA Lakers/Utah Jazz: This team has arguably been together for a few seasons now, but their 2nd option, Pau Gasol, has been with them for less than half a season and all of their supporting cast is young still even if they have emerged. They beat an overmatched team in the 1st round (Denver) in 4 games simply because they were that much better. This round, they got the Western Conference Finalists of last season and a great home team. This one's looking like it could go 7, even though I think the Lakers will win.

New Orleans Hornets/San Antonio Spurs: This one isn't as much about the Spurs losing in New Orleans (Chris Paul is just unstoppable and his teammates play better at home - simple as that) as it is about the Hornets discovering themselves in a tough series. I think the Spurs will extend the Hornets as long as they possibly can, but not having homecourt could eventually hurt them since these Hornets are clearly legitimate and around to stay for a while. Next season, they will be amongst the favorites for the title.

Boston Celtics/Cleveland Cavaliers: The Celtics are simply a better team than the Cavaliers. They were also the best road team in the league during the regular season. I will blame this on the coaching. They had a rotation set for 3/4 of the season and went away from it. Now they look sketchy on the road. The team is experienced and has leadership, just not a coach who can decide on what he wants to do in crunch time. They need to figure out their road issues soon though because I do believe Detroit can beat Boston at least once in Boston. The Cavs are just too overmatched in this series to steal one away from home. The best they can do is hold court at home and hope for some ridiculous Lebron game 7 heroics.

Detroit Pistons/Orlando Magic: The worst series. Orlando has been a team full of holes all season and it's quite clear in this series. They just match up terribly against these Pistons. They don't have a PG big enough for Chauncey Billups, a swingman fast enough or athletic enough to chase and stick with Rip Hamilton, nor a swingman good enough to keep Tayshaun Prince at bay. Just awful. I can't wait for the Conference Finals.

Round 2

2008-04-30T08:21:00.001-07:00

I know, I know. Round 1 isn't technically over yet, but honestly, it basically is.

Let's see, Detroit has woken up from its ridiculous slumber and taken a 3-2 lead on Philly and I don't doubt they will finally shut the door on the series in game 6 even if it is on the road. Boston has gotten out-energized in 2 games in a row, but it's a young Hawks team who's excited. I still don't think that Atlanta squad can win in Boston, which means the C's will still win the series. I actually think they will close it out on the road in game 6 as well. One thing of note, I'm happy Mike Woodson's job is basically safe after all the crap he's had to go through to get that team playing well. Then there's Cleveland, who I told you would have some close games with Washington, but still win the series in fine fashion - they'll close it out at home in game 5. Orlando's already through in 5 games (terrible call on my part - Toronto needs to address their rebounding/big man woes and get a guy who can take over the game scoring off the dribble).

Out West, New Orleans "shocked" everyone by dominating Dallas for the majority of that series and LA didn't give Denver a shot in that series. Flat out, that one wasn't even close. San Antonio also finished off Phoenix in fine, painful fashion as they are accustomed to doing. I don't think the rumors of D'Antoni getting fired are legit. He deserves to stay at least as long as Nash can still play at his high level. Then there's Utah, who I've been saying all year is OVERRATED. Sure, Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer were magnificent in last year's playoffs getting to the conference finals, but were they really? They won a game 7 in Houston last year (who weren't nearly as good as they are this season - although much better with Yao than without) and beat a worn-out Golden State Warriors squad that just matched up terribly. Now we see them struggling to beat a undermanned, undersized Rockets team. I just don't understand how people love that Jazz team and think they're so great. Deron's a great player, but he's even inconsistent at times. Carlos Boozer just isn't good on the defensive end. Mehmet Okur has been their most consistent option in the series and they rely on Andrei Kirilenko to do way to much, which is never a good thing. I think Utah will win this series, but in the next round, they are going to get exposed by a GREAT Lakers team.

So now onto the next round match-ups (as long as the 1st round plays out correctly, which by the way, who would have ever thought the last four series in the 1st round would be DET/PHI, BOS/ATL, UTAH/HOU and CLE/WASH. I barely count the Cleveland series since that one's going to end in 5. Gotta love the NBA)

ROUND 2:
East:

Cleveland @ Boston: This series is one people are starting to question. People think Doc Rivers is finally imploding after a seemingly masterful season. They think Boston, all of a sudden, doesn't have options at the end of games. The Celtics don't have a set rotation anymore. Why is Cassell playing at the end of games instead of Rondo? Who can guard Lebron? All legit questions unless you forget that Boston was clearly the best team during the NBA season. They won 66 games, most people recall, BUT they also LOST games as well. And it's not like they never lost multiple games in a row. That happened too. I almost feel dumb for having to convince people that Boston should be and will show that they're the favorites in this series. Sure, they'll have problems with Lebron, but who doesn't? And moreover, Boston led the league in defense this season, by a lot too. They have the DPOY in Kevin Garnett and I'm sure they can figure out a way to limit Lebron and basically stop the rest of that Cavaliers team. As long as Pierce is relatively healthy (which is somewhat of a big IF) I would pick these Celtics in 5, but since that's not certain, I'm going to pick them in 7, not because I think Cleveland is that good. I'm confident that the 3 games before game 7 that Boston win will be 10+ points, while Cleveland will sneak out with a few "Lebron games". If I'm Boston, I take a look and see that I can put Tony Allen (for quickness), James Posey (a bit bigger) or Leon Powe (even more size) on Lebron to give him different looks. As for the rest of the Cavs, who cares? They all helped him enough against Washington (who's not a better team than the Wizards, that's a questionable statement at best), but that was because the Wizards are an awful defensive team and have been for years.

Orlando @ Detroit: See, now this actually might be a series... if not for 2 factors. I don't think anyone on the Pistons is containing Dwight Howard. He's too big for anyone on Detroit. He might have just as sick a stat line against Detroit as he did against Toronto. The problem is, Detroit has 2 match-ups against Orlando that are just as lopsided, if not more lopsided. At least with Dwight, he's only hurting you in one way. With Detroit, Chauncey Billups is going to punish whoever is checking him, whether it be Jameer Nelson (too small) or Carlos Arroyo (just not good enough). He had a bad series against Andre Miller (you're telling me NO ONE wanted this guy when Philly was shopping him??), whose got great size, but that's not going to be a problem against Orlando. Then there's Rasheed, who's a match-up nightmare for just about everyone, but especially the Magic. Who is going to guard him?? You're going to put Rashard Lewis on him in the post? Wow, that would be murder. So even though Dwight will get his, the Pistons team is too talented to lose this one. I think Detroit would win in 5, although I'm tempted to say 6 games since we all know they like to give games away sometimes.

West:

Utah @ LA: Like I said before, I don't know why everyone loves Utah so much, but they did show me one thing: they lost a game at home and the way I see it, if Houston can beat Utah for one game in Salt Lake City, the Lakers definitely can. LA's got a great match-up as well. Utah's got absolutely no one to guard Kobe who, last I checked, was still pretty damn good and on a mission. I think Boozer and Gasol can neutralize each other's effectiveness. Neither can play any defense and both are pretty talented offensively. I think Deron Williams can be limited by a combination of Fisher, Farmar and Vujacic (lots of size, athleticism and quickness in that trio). LA in 5.

San Antonio @ New Orleans: I would have felt a lot better about the Hornets' chances in this one if San Antonio lost that game last night. It would have worn the Spurs down some more and let New Orleans scout a little bit more. With that said though, it's going to be tough to pick either side in this one. New Orleans seems to match-up so well against the defending Champs. Chris Paul is just better than Tony Parker, David West played real solid against Dirk last round and Duncan will be a similar match-up. Likewise, Tyson Chandler doesn't have to worry about defending Kurt Thomas or Fabricio Oberto and can patrol the paint. The one issue is Manu. He would be a tough one to contain, but maybe New Orleans goes small again with Pargo and Paul and out-quick the Spurs or bring in Bonzi and hope he can do something. As much as I love the Spurs (they're healthy, which is scary), I think the young Hornets might actually win this series. They've got homecourt, which has been huge for them, and I see this series going 7. Both teams will get one on the opposing home floor and extend this series the entire length. New Orleans in 7.

Update: So, with Toronto out of it, and if all the remaining series go accordingly, I will be 7/8 in my 1st round picks.

Conference Finals Picks: New Orleans @ LA Lakers (change from San Antonio, although obviously the Spurs could still make that spot) and Detroit @ Boston (same as before)

Finals Pick (and wish for it to happen): LA Lakers @ Boston (LA wins in 7)

The NBA Season Part II - Playoff Version

2008-04-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

OK, so now that one of the most exciting NBA regular seasons in recent memory (or probably in my sports lifetime - the past 10 years or so) has now ended, we can get on to a potentially great NBA postseason, which begins this Saturday at 12:30 pm Eastern time (Wizards @ Cavs). Obviously, I've got to preview the playoffs:

East 1st Round:

#1 Boston Celtics VS #8 Atlanta Hawks

- There are so many storylines heading into this 2008 NBA playoffs and the Hawks making the playoffs after an NBA long 9 seasons has got to be one of the better ones in the 1st round. It's too bad that they have to match up against the premier team this season in the Boston Celtics. I never want to say a team has no chance against another one, but in this case it's pretty easy. The C's swept the Hawks 3-0 during the regular season and are on a mission after winning 66 games. Doc Rivers has this team rested after a long regular season that featured many blowouts and that will only continue in this series. I think this will be the least exciting of all the series because of the Celtics' dominance and Hawks' complete inexperience and youth. It will be a nice learning experience for the up-and-coming Atlanta Hawks, but this series is going 4-0 to Boston.

#2 Detroit Pistons VS #7 Philadelphia 76ers

- Who would of thought one season after trading AI that there would be another AI emerging in Philly? It's another great story in the East for an underdog team facing a perennial power. Detroit's always been a cruise-control regular season team and they have the veterans and experience to understand that. The thing different about this season's Piston team from last years, but similar to that championship squad is energy from the younger players and depth, both coming off the bench in guys who have emerged for them like Jarvis Hayes, Jason Maxiell and more recently, Rodney Stuckey. These guys will be the X-factor in how far the Pistons advance (either the Conference Finals or NBA Finals). I love how Andre Miller played through all the trade rumors all season and emerged as a near-top tier Point Guard. This team is still too young to win a series though, especially one against a team as good as the Pistons. I do see Detroit slipping up a game or two though. 4-1 to the Pistons.

#3 Orlando Magic VS #6 Toronto Raptors

- The Raptors probably got a better matchup here than if they would've played Lebron's Cavs. They've got the Point Guards in Jose Calderon and TJ Ford, which is a position that the Magic severely need to improve upon. I don't like but a handful of guys to match up with Dwight Howard in either conference, but Chris Bosh is an All-Star big man and Toronto's got a few big guys to throw at Howard to slow him down in a long series. There was no way the Raps could have matched up against Lebron (another one of their weaknesses - lack of a good/great defensive wing), but against Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis, I think they've got a chance. The Raptors are deeper than the Magic and play a more defined style of basketball. Most people are paying attention to that Cavs/Wizards series, which is getting all the hype because of the media paying attention to Lebron and Gil, but this series may very well be the best Eastern series under the radar. I see Toronto pulling out a tight series on the road in game 7. It'll be a tough task for them, but I think last year's playoff disappointment helped this team in terms of experience. 4-3 Raptors.

#4 Cleveland Cavaliers VS #5 Washington Wizards

- OK, this series has me a bit confused. The Wizards stand a chance against the Cavs HOW?? The Cavs have beaten the Wizards both the past two seasons in the playoffs. Sure last year Washington didn't have either Caron Butler or Gilbert Arenas, but that series wasn't close either way. It's not like the rest of that team showed up. The year before it was a fantastic 7 game series that was decided by gamewinners that were questionable calls or no-calls by the zebras. I get all that, BUT have we forgotten that Cleveland has a man named LEBRON JAMES? The man that singlehandedly beat the Pistons last season, the man who's better this season and looks more determined than he has in the past 2 playoffs. He got to the NBA finals last year and now you think that he's going to allow his team (no matter how bad the supporting cast is) to lose in the 1st round? Unbelievable. Here's what I think, Lebron's going to be Lebron and pull off his heroics as he has all season in the 4th quarter. This means that if the games are close (remember: Washington still doesn't play any defense) that Lebron's going to take over when it matters and win some of those games himself. The series might be exciting, but at the end of the day it'll be 4-1 Cleveland at home.

Tentative Eastern Conference Finals pick: Boston over Detroit in 7 at home.

West 1st Round:

#1 LA Lakers VS #8 Denver Nuggets

- This is where the real playoffs are, in the West. Only 7 games separate 1st place (LA) from 8th place (Denver) and although I think Denver would have gotten torched by New Orleans if they drew them, I think they've got a legit shot at making it a series with LA. We all know Denver doesn't play defense outside of Marcus Camby, but without Bynum for potentially a few playoff games, LA could be a bit vulnerable. Kenyon Martin could do a decent job on Pau Gasol, leaving Camby to do what he does best, which is help defense and blocking a ton of shots. Then there's obviously AI and Melo out on the perimeter doing their scoring bit and explosive guys like JR Smith and Linas Kleiza coming off the bench, but the thing about the Nuggets is that they're as streaky a playoff team as they come. I could easily see them beating the the Lakers in 6 games, streaking into the 2nd round if they shoot well enough and are focused enough after going up 3-1 in the 1st 4 games to win a 4th game at home, but am I sane enough to predict that... No, definitely not. When it comes down to it, Los Angeles has played some of the best basketball of any team this season. I would say only Boston has played more consistently and with more intensity. Kobe, since the Lakers acquired Pau Gasol, has had that look. He knows this team is good enough win a championship, especially if Bynum returns to form in these playoffs (big question mark now since he hasn't played in forever and who knows what kind of shape he's in). The team is still relatively young, but with as much talent and energy as they've got as a team, I can't see them losing to a schizophrenic Nuggets team after the great season they've had. I see a 5 game series ending in LA, where the Lakers advance to the 2nd round. Carmelo is going to have the TMac first round questions soon enough (and what used to be KG's trademark).

#2 New Orleans Hornets VS #7 Dallas Mavericks

- Even though there are so many close series in the West, this one might be the toughest for me. I love Chris Paul and his game and how he dominates the game from the Point Guard position (I think he has more so than even Nash because he plays the position at both ends, but he's not the best 2-way PG yet. I'll still give that honor to Chauncey Billups), but this Mavs team is obviously proven and have just as capable a leader in Dirk Nowitzki. I don't have a strong argument for picking the Hornets other than the fact that they've been great all season and Dirk might still be feeling a bit of that leg injury he suffered a few weeks ago, even though no one's talking about it. David West might be able to neutralize Dirk and if he can, Chris Paul can take over the series because at this point in his career, even Jason Kidd can't do the things Paul does, not can he stop him. I'll say this one goes seven and Mark Cuban will have to think about changes after a 2nd consecutive 1st round loss.

#3 San Antonio Spurs VS #6 Phoenix Suns

- If this series doesn't have to most and most controversial storylines, I don't know which one would. After the Spurs won questionable games in this series last season (the Steve Nash nose, the Phoenix suspensions, Tim Donaghy reffing a couple of the games, etc...), they obviously went on to win the NBA finals. Now the 2 rivals meet again, although I hesitate to call them rivals since the Suns have never beaten the Spurs in a playoff series, and this time in Round one. It almost seems unfair, but hell, how can we as fans honestly complain to have the privilege of watching these two square off? It's going to be a great series and perhaps the most intense of any other series in the 1st round. I honestly can't wait. I hope it goes seven games and that's why I'm predicting it does. Honestly, I don't know how I could possibly pick the defending champs to go down in round 1 in a 7th game at home so I'm going the conservative route and picking the Spurs. I'm sorry to the Suns' fans out there because your window is definitely closing, but it's the Spurs we're talking about here. 4-3 Spurs at home in game seven (By the way, if this actually happens 3-4 of these games will probably end up being instant classics).

#4 Utah Jazz VS #5 Houston Rockets

- This might be the most painful series for me to watch, if not for anything else, because of my sympathy for T-Mac's unbelievably painful 1st round losses in recent memory and if that must continue again this season, it'd just be too bad. Seeds really don't matter here. Houston had the better season record so even though they're the #5 seed and Utah's #4, the Rockets are actually the team with home court. I think for the Rockets to win this series, they have to win that game 7 at home that they lost last year against these same Utah Jazz. Personally, I've thought Utah has been relatively overrated all season. Don't get me wrong, they've got a ton of talent with a great PG-PF punch with Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, and then there's Mehmet Okur who looks healthy now after his mid-season injury. They've got all the offensive weapons you could want, but defense is their issue. If AK-47 goes down in this series, which is definitely a possibility, they've got no one to guard T-Mac who, I would have to believe, has all the motivation in the world to win this series. He's already come out and said something to the extent of "it's not on me this time", but you think that means he doesn't want out of the 1st round? If anything, it's a psychological trick to try and get the Jazz to let their guard down a bit. Anyways, Ronnie Brewer gets steals, but he's not the 1-on-1 defender Kirilenko is and if AK goes down to injury, which he's accustomed to doing from time to time, the Rockets have a great shot at winning this series. With all that said, as painful as this is for me, I'm picking Utah in 6 games. I just think in the end, they've got too much talent and could easily pull out a game in Houston (where T-Mac plays worse than on the road) and 37-4 is pretty impressive to be at home (best in the NBA) to close out the series in game 6.

Tentative Western Conference Finals pick (this one is extremely difficult): Los Angeles Lakers over San Antonio Spurs in 6 games.

NOTE: I am hoping for that I'm wrong in round 1 and Phoenix makes a run and its LA/PHX in the WCF. That would make for one of the great NBA postseasons in a long time. A great rivalry series in the Conference Finals and a potential Laker/Celtic Finals. Got to love the NBA.

It's been a while...

2008-04-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

Not saying I'll be back to stay, but maybe a post here and there. This week will end one of the (if not THE) great sports month time spans of each year. It will be ended potentially with Tiger Woods winning the Masters - his 14th overall major, the 1st of this calendar year and the 1st in his confident quest of the unprecedented grand slam. The month began with the exciting NCAA tournament, in which Kansas won in dramatic, instant classic fashion. In the midst was the start of baseball season (twice if you count those 2 Red Sox/A's games in Japan, but because there was so much news, the start of MLB didn't even get much notice. This is not even to mention the NFL draft (still waaay too long), which is coming soon enough. Wait, there's more... This NBA season has been one for the ages. It's been one of the most exciting seasons in a long time, with about 5-6 teams towards the top that could potentially win it all when the playoffs begin in 2-3 weeks (Boston, Detroit, Phoenix, LAL, San Antonio, New Orleans). Wow, just crazy. Since I can't possibly touch on all these great sporting events, I'll try to clump some of them together. Here we go:

This season's NCAA tournament would seem to have been a boring higher seeds ride, considering it was the 1st time ever all 4 #1 seeds made the Final Four, which wasn't surprising, surprisingly since all season Kansas, UNC, UCLA and Memphis seemed to be one tier above the rest (if that makes any sense, hopefully it does). This "boredom" was not so. The tournament gave birth to new stars, teams and stories. The best of which could not even be decided upon if it was up to me... but I'll try. It's between Davidson's Elite Eight run with their star Stephen Curry and Kansas completely dominating Roy Williams' UNC Tar Heels after all the talk in the Final Four (others that easily were in consideration: Kansas' unbelievable overtime victory behind guard Mario Chalmers, Western Kentucky's mid-major Cinderella story as a 12 seed into the sweet sixteen, which was highly overlooked because of all the stories and the rest of the highly competitive games). The reason I chose Stephen Curry was because up until that shot by Richards to try and defeat the eventual Champ, Kansas, HE was THE story of the tournament. It wasn't even close - America found it's new college basketball icon and he had a baby face. Curry's already declared that he's staying at school next season and I'm not sure if it's the smartest long-term move, but it does guarantee this - that he WILL be a leading candidate for player of the year (even if Tyler Hansbrough stays for his senior year) and he will put Davidson on the map as a Gonzaga-type "mid-major" school (which essentially means that Davidson will have a chance to be on the national level for the long-term as long as they keep commitment to the basketball program). The Roy Williams' story was simple. He's said in the past that he would never schedule a duel with his former team of 15 years so basically the only way they ever would meet would be in the tournament, which seems unlikely if this weren't 2 elite programs, but we're talking about Kansas and UNC here, two perennial top 10 programs in the nation in all aspects. Clearly, the matchup was bound to happen eventually and now, after a national title already with UNC and 5 seasons in between, Roy met his old team. Albeit, all of his former recruits have since graduated or moved on, but Jayhawk fans are some of the most passionate in the country and many wouldn't let Roy's statement of "never leaving" Lawrence go. After all this, an essential beatdown of the Tar Heels and a clutch, dramatic National title win, hopefully the rest of Kansas will forgive Roy Williams as well and move on (or then again, they could just turn of Coach Bill Self if he takes the job at Oklahoma State - that would just be a mistake for both parties). The stories were plentiful though, obviously many of which were about draft prospects as well. There's a good reason why the National title game gets so much attention. In fact, some of you may have noticed that there were no NBA games scheduled that night. It would be foolish to compete with that event and scouts can watch those players easier if their team isn't playing the same night. I gave my top 5 prospects about a month ago here:

http://yooxfantasysportsblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/its-march-madness-baaaby.html

At this point, there can't be too many changes, although I'm sure Derrick Rose's performance in the tournament, leading that Tiger team to the title game may have swayed some people and Eric Gordon may have dipped a bit on some charts. I still like Beasley, Rose, Bayless, Lopez (not Gordon anymore) and Mayo as my top 5 guys. Jordan and Gordon quite easily drop from this group because Gordon seems a bit one-dimensional for my liking, although the kid's got unbelievable range and athleticism and his hurt wrist may have contributed a bit to his late season dipping numbers and DeAndre Jordan just isn't ready for the NBA. Sure, he's 7'0" tall, 260 lbs and has great length, but if he can't dominate the college game at that size, he's in no man's land for at least a couple of seasons in the quicker, longer (in terms of gameplay and season) NBA game.

That makes it easier for me to talk about the NBA. The West is still not set in stone, as the 7th and 8th playoff seeds are still two musical chairs with 3 teams vying for a seat. Denver, as I've predicted (even after Dirk's leg injuries), would still be the odd man out and I'm sticking by that. I just think Golden State, with their style, can string enough wins in a row to push themselves in and Dallas has pulled ahead of the other 2 teams by a couple of games, which at this point in the season is a huge deal. I also gave my MVP picks (along with the other picks) a while back:

http://yooxfantasysportsblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/stretch-run.html

I stand by my Chris Paul pick and what seems to be the deciding factor for reporters and the voters (the people who actually decide the award) is if CP3 can lead his Hornets team to a #1 seed. If he does, he'll be the most deserving MVP since KG got it in 2004 (I believe? It was the season he won and took the T-Wolves to the WCF). We've seen quite a few controversial ones in past years (Nash VS Shaq in 2005, Nash VS Kobe in 2006, Dirk as an "underqualified" MVP last season). I agree there's got to be some sentiment for Kobe, after the great year that LA has had, but can we remember something - LAL has made the playoffs the past 2 seasons, New Orleans wasn't even CLOSE and to shoot up to #1 is completely, utterly incomprehensible and the hands-down best player, game-changer, "makes-all-of-his-teammates-better" guy is none other than Chris #3 Paul.

As for the NFL Draft, I basically have no clue what's going. What I hear, though, is that Miami is already negotiating with Jake Long (Offensive Lineman, University of Michigan) as the 1st overall pick. I can't really say I can disagree with their way of thinking considering Joe Thomas went #3 last season and if not for Adrian Peterson's magical rookie campaign, Thomas would have been Offensive Rookie of the Year. He was easily the most ready to play out of the top 3 (JaMarcus Russell and Calvin Johnson were the top 2 picks, respectively). Anyways, I'll be watching closely at what my Bengals do considering they've made the 1st step towards a better campaign with the waiving of oft-problem-seeking WR, Chris Henry, and still having Chad Johnson complaining over whatever network will have him speak. Here was one I wrote on the Bengals and what they should do to hopefully pass these off-field issues:

http://yooxfantasysportsblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/after-loooong-hiatus.html

The beginning of Baseball season is useless to talk about since the season is so long and unless there's a big trade, there's not much to be interested about... So there's the Masters and usually I wouldn't be excited about Golf, but how could you not be excited when one of the great players of any sport of all time presents himself with an impossible (so far) task. Tiger basically said that he should have won the Grand Slam already and he's just not been lucky enough to get the "right 4 tournaments". This is just as good as anything MJ could say about predicting a sweep of an anticipated playoff series or A-Rod giving himself the task of hitting 100 Home Runs or the simplest comparison would be Roger Federer predicting himself to win the Tennis Grand Slam (although, he's a shoo-in for 3/4 of those every year anyways it seems - He's THAT good).

Anyways, this month will conclude soon and once May and June go by with the NBA playoffs (which is ridiculously long as many others have pointed out), the "boring" of the year will begin, when all summer there will just be Major League Baseball, America's favorite pastime.

Selection Sunday

2008-03-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's one of best sporting days of the year - "Selection Sunday" - for the Men of college basketball. I'll be watching games all day and for good measure, I'll keep my notes here for the majority of the day.

12:00 pm: My day starts in Charlotte, NC, where the ACC tournament was coming to a close between the Clemson Tigers and UNC Tar Heels. Like the rest of tournament has been so far, this game didn't fail to impress. Both these teams have already guaranteed themselves a spot in the tourny and are now just playing for seeding and bragging rights.

12:50 pm: Ty Lawson scrambles for a last shot before halftime and the shot wiggles out... I was ready to jump out of my seat.

1:11 pm: Just realized the orange/baby blue split on the sidelines. Pretty funny to see. On another note, it's ridiculous to watch that Tiger full court trap. Maybe that's how this team has been playing all season, but I can't possibly see them keeping this up for 40 minutes not with this kind of intensity, but at this point in tournaments, a lot of teams are running on pure adrenaline.

1:17 pm: They show the graphic for last time Clemson was in an ACC title game (1962). I don't know what's more impressive - Dick Vitale's senior year at Seton Hall or 31 cents for a gallon of gas.

1:27 pm: Clemson's starting to fall apart just as I suspected. They're playing softer and more timid than they were in the 1st half. The Tigers are missing shots and not getting 2nd chances, while UNC is starting to run and get their game going without any relent.

1:45 pm: It's getting down to the 5 minute mark and Clemson's making a last run attempt. The score's 74-67 and Danny Green's fouled out of the game. I'm going on a quick lunch break (don't worry I'll be watching the game while eating though).

2:03 pm: 4 point game, UNC's Wayne Ellington at the free throw line trying to ice the game. Ellington misses one. Clemson gets off a solid look from three (Ogilesby) and Carolina rebounds to get the win.

2:14 PM: Never mind on that call. 15 minutes later, UNC is fouling Clemson like they're the ones needing a miracle comeback. This is ridiculous. The game finally ends at UNC 86, Clemson 81, but it was not a smooth ending for the Tar Heels and they need to figure some things out before getting ready for the tournament.

Next game(s): Big Ten title: Illinois VS Wisconsin, Big 12 title: Texas VS Kansas, SEC title: Georgia VS Arkansas

ESPN is running the Big 12 title game, which by all means is probably the best game of the afternoon. The most intriguing has to be the SEC title matchup since Georgia is an under ".500" team going for an auto-bid and taking a potential bid away from other "bubble teams". The matchup I'll be watching though is the Big Ten because of the home bias for Wisconsin, even though this game will probably ugly and relatively unwatchable to the average fan.

2:24 pm: Eww, I just realized Billy Packer and Jim Nantz would be doing the Big Ten title game. I might be watching a lot of the Big 12 title contest.

2:40 pm: It's not even possible for this Big Ten game to be uglier right now. 14:07 mark in the 1st half and the score is... 8-4 - Ill. - Wait! 8-7! Wisco hit a trey.

2:46 pm: This Big Ten is at 10-10... I'm switching to the Big 12 and it's eff'in 35-34. Who in their right mind would watch the Big Ten when there's a game of this caliber on right now. KU and UT are just shooting lights out. Both these two teams are showing why they're both threats to win it all.

2:59 pm: Just decided to check in on the SEC and UGA is up 26-9. There's no typo there - the 16-16 Bulldogs are up on Arkansas 26-9 with 10:00+ left in the 1st half. If Georgia makes this tournament, someone on that bubble is gonna be quite bitter.

3:01 pm: The Big 12 is at the half and we'll have to refer to this score again once the Big Ten has reached their halftime as well, but this score is currently on pace for triple digits for both teams. Halftime score: 46-45 Texas.

3:11 pm: The Big Ten is at the half with Wisconsin leading 29-22 on Illinois. Wow, I honestly just hope that this game reaching triple digits combined scoring. Don't let that close score fool you either. A 7 point lead in this type of contest might as well read 39-22 in other leagues.

3:14 pm: So I'm reading the KU/UT box score and Augustin's got 18pts in the 1st half (by the way, the 2nd half of the contest just began) and I had to think to myself, DJ Augustin is quite easily the best point guard in the country and he's probably also the best 1-on-1 player as well. There's no other guy in the country that makes plays as easily off the dribble as Augustin, for his teammates as well as himself. If he stays at school after this season, which he may considering he is a bit undersized for the next level, he's got to be the frontrunner for player of the year next season, unless Tyler Hansbrough is at UNC again next season, which he obviously may as well. IMHO, Augustin should enter the point guard deep draft because he's got enough talent and savvy to be a lottery pick.

3:28 pm: Kansas is showing how good they can be. Mario Chalmers is trumping DJ Augustin's performance with 25pts of his own. They just have so many weapons and talent that any of them can go off on a given night. Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush, Darnell Jackson, Sharron Collins... The list continues and all of them can play defense, which isn't showing in this hot-shooting affair, but is definitely true. The score is 57-54 Kansas at the 11:00 mark in the 2nd half.

3:32 pm: Checking in on my Badgers and it's going well. Wisconsin has taken a 39-26 lead with 16:00+ minutes left. As long as they keep up the D, which is one of the great ones of this season, they should cruise to the title and a #2 seed.

3:37 pm: Just checked in on an NBA score (LAL @ HOU since Houston's going for 22 straight wins) and the Rockets are beating the Pau Gasol-less Lakers 59-44 at the half. The game is on ABC if you want to see the Rockets continue to target history.

3:50 pm: Wow, that's about all I can say about this Big 12 game. It's completely crazy how up-and-down it is and it's definitely lived up to the hype. The teams keep going back and forth, Kansas just made a bit of a comeback to take a 70-69 lead on Texas.

3:53 pm: The graphic was just shown and there have been 14 lead changes and 6 ties. 72-71 Kansas.

3:54 pm: Went to the Big Ten score - 53-35 Wisconsin, and even though there are 8 minutes left, an 18 point lead in the Big Ten against a defensive team like Wisconsin is just not gonna get overcome. Sorry Illini, your NCAA tournament bid looks to be over.

4:05 pm: Kansas has a 78-73 lead with under a minute left. Chalmers has 28pts going to the line. Hits the 1st and then hits the 2nd. 80-73 and the Big 12 title will goto the Kansas Jayhawks as well as what i believe will be a #1 seed. Texas will likely drop to a #2 seed, along with Wisconsin, Tennessee and Duke (those are my predictions anyway).

Final Scores of these final tournaments:
ACC: 86-81 UNC over Clemson
Big 12: 84-74 Kansas over Texas
Big Ten: 61-48 Wisconsin over Illinois
SEC: 66-57 UGA over Arkansas

4:18 pm: The SEC is now switched to CBS after the finale of the Big Ten tournament. Georgia, after their ridiculous start, has come back down to Earth and is in a tight one with Arkansas. There are just under 4:00 left and the score is now 56-53.

4:24 pm: WOW, Georgia may have just clinched the contest. Billy Humphrey just hit a trey ball with just under 2:00 to put the score at 61-53 for the Bulldogs.

With the games over, the bracketology basically only just begins. Over the next hour or two, the committee will release the entire bracket and there will clearly be snubs and teams that "shouldn't" be there. I'll give my thoughts when they occur.

4:49 pm: Some downtime before the selection process begins so I turned on the Houston/LAL game (Thanks G-Nads for letting me watch the Lakers lose and Kobe stttruggle). And I gotta admit, Houston's looking impressive. I get that you need to be hot to win 21 straight (perhaps 22 now - they're up 96-86 with 3:15 left), but this team looks pretty legit. T-Mac is playing like he cares and that he wants to take this team as far as they can go. The role players know exact what to do and they do everything that is needed to win.

5:00 pm: The Houston/LAL game is almost over, with Houston's 22nd consecutive victory coming in with little doubt. I've switched over to CBS where the seeding and bracket is being released.

5:01 pm: The #1 seeds are just as I thought they'd be a week ago, UNC as the #1 overall, Memphis, UCLA and Kansas (in that order). UNC is out East, Kansas is the Midwest, UCLA is in the West and Memphis down South. UCLA and Memphis would be slotted to meet each other in the final four, with Kansas and UNC to meet on the other side.

5:08 pm: The East region is now being revealed. Indiana is an 8 seed, WOW. This is real surprising to me. I knew IU had a bad close to the season, but didn't think they would drop past a 6 seed. It just shows the end of the season is really crucial for the tournament seeding. The 2 seed in this region is Tennessee, which is chilling since Tennessee was on the cusp of a #1 seed. A real intriguing matchup at 1st glance already is the 4/13 matchup between Winthrop and "Wazzu". WSU has struggled throughout the Pac-10 and Winthrop has been a tough win for many top tier teams in the past few seasons.

5:15 pm: The Midwest region is the 2nd region to be revealed. The #12 seed in this region was Villanova, a team that was definitely on the bubble. Wow, I can't believe this just happened. At 1st look, this bottom half of the bracket might be the toughest in the field. With Georgetown at the #2, Wisconsin at the #3 and USC at the #6, any of those teams could come out of this region to potentially face #1 Kansas in the Elite Eight. I like that 5/12 matchup, a lot. I think #5 Clemson's weaknesses shooting FT's makes them an easy candidate for a loss, especially against a bubble team like #12 Villanova, who's played so many close games in the deep, tough Big East

5:23 pm: Next is the South. MSU is the #5 in this region and I don't think they'll have too much difficulty taking down Temple. Pittsburgh rose a ton by winning their Big East title to get a #4 seed in this region. Texas is the #2 in this region and are my early favorites to be in the final four out of this region. They might have a tough time with Stanford, who's the #3 seed in this region. Looking at this region early, I'm seeing a lot of tough matchups, which makes this region one of the deepest revealed so far.

5:31 pm: Here's the last one: the West. The #5 in this one is Drake, who surprisingly won the MVC. They face #12 Western Kentucky. This makes my one favorite pick of a 12 upsetting a 5 stand because I actually like Drake and believe they're a legit team. Arizona broke the bubble and made it as well as a #10 seed. Georgia, a part of the last game played, got in as a #14 seed and play #3 Xavier.

Well, the brackets are now out and from what I've seen, there are quite a few surprises. I can't believe my Badgers didn't get a #2 seed. They were without a doubt the #1 team out of the Big Ten, a weak conference this season, but also the conference that has sent 2 teams in the past 4 years to the final game. I was surprised Villanova and St. Joseph's made the tournament with at larges, while teams like Illinois State, Va Tech, Arizona State and Ohio State did not make it. Many of the selections seemed pretty correct, but from what I'd heard recently, ASU and UofA had very similar resumes and for one to get in and not the other is a bit questionable. I also thought Va Tech showed enough during the season and in the ACC tournament to make it in. They finished ahead of Miami in the ACC and got the shaft, while Miami is dancing. A simple way to pick my favorite would be to just pick it. I like UNC. There's not really much doubt in my mind right now. They've got a couple of potentially tough games with IU (#8, 2nd round), Notre Dame (#5, 3rd round) and Tennessee (#2, Elite Eight), but I think the fact that they have some "home" games to play (all of their games are in the state of North Carolina until the Final Four) for the Final Four will get them out of their bracket. That being said, I think they are stronger than any other team in the nation and is playing as well as anyone else and with these facets considered, they will get there at the very least and have a great shot at winning it all. All this being said, I will spend much of my next four days figuring out my brackets and will update some upsets and picks I see happening. Happy March Baby! (Thanks Tibs for the idea of a Running Diary on one of the biggest sporting days of the year)

Fantasy Baseball

2008-03-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

So my 1st fantasy baseball draft of the season is done. It was a private, customized deeeep league (10 players, but not quite your traditional 5X5 categories). I got the 1st overall pick, which was just sweet. Here it is:

*NOTE: This wasn't very characteristic of me, but I did leave the draft about 2/3 through (it was 27 rounds and many of the other owners had already left) so many of my latter picks were autopicked unfortunately.

C: Geovany Soto (15)
C: Jason Varitek (19)
1B: Garrett Atkins (5)
2B: BJ Upton (2)
3B: Alex Rodriguez (1)
SS: Michael Young (8)
CI: Kevin Youkilis (16)
MI: Dan Uggla (13)
LF: Chris Duncan (14)
CF: Ichiro (3)
RF: Bobby Abreu (6)
OF: Hunter Pence (7)
OF: Corey Hart (9)
UTIL: Ryan Doumit (20)
Bench: 1B - Carlos Delgado (21)
Bench: CF - Gary Matthews Jr. (24)
Bench: CF - Mike Cameron (25)

SP: Cole Hamels (4)
SP: Roy Oswalt (10)
SP: Ben Sheets (12)
SP: John Maine (17)
RP: Billy Wagner (11)
RP: Kevin Gregg (23)
P: SP - Jeff Francis (18)
P: SP - Ian Snell (22)
Bench: SP - Curt Schilling (26)
Bench: SP - Bronson Arroyo (27)

(#) - Round I drafted this player. Autopick was in effect after round 19 (Jason Varitek was my last pick.

Here are the league categories (some are a bit ridiculous):

Runs, Hits, 1B, 2B. 3B, HR, RBI, SB, BB, K's and Batting Average for offense
IP, Wins, CG's, Saves, Hits, Total Earned Runs, K's, Holds, ERA and WHIP for Pitching

So as you can see, there are quite a few players that I'll be looking to drop for other guys. For starters, I need to get a couple of more relievers for everyday type production for guys like Schilling (out until at least the ASB in July) and relatively useless OF's like Matthews Jr. and Cameron. I felt like my draft was relatively solid until the autopicking kicked in. One thing I did regret was taking the point of drafting catchers late too far. This league plays 2 starters and I maybe should have reached a bit earlier and gotten a guy like Joe Mauer so the position would have at least have been somewhat solidified. Getting the 1st pick was also nice since this will be the 2nd year in a row I'll have A-Rod in this exact league (last year I "reached" for him at the 3rd overall pick). I'm relatively satisfied with this team and if some of my post-draft waiver moves go through, my team should be fine to start the season. It was a good way to get a feel for future drafts though. I'll probably be in 3 or 4 leagues when it's said and done. I'm not as big on baseball as basketball and football, but it's definitely something to do in the long summer when no other sports are going on.

It's March Madness BAAABY!!

2008-03-09T17:26:00.000-07:00

That's my best attempt at a mimic of Dick Vitale (on computer of course). Even though this man seems irksome to the general public while they watch college basketball's best games every week on ESPN, he's still one of the personalities who defines college basketball, and although I admittedly find him quite annoying and having way too much of an ACC and east coast bias, his spirit and good nature at 69 years old for college basketball is needed and it will be a big loss for the sport when/if he retires and leaves the game in all.

Now onto what this is actually about, and that is "Championship Week" and the last of the games proceeding. Last night was a beautiful thing for UNC fans, including myself. They clicked on every level and showed how good they can be with a healthy Ty Lawson. They went into one of the toughest places in the country, Cameron Indoor, in Durham, NC and just took a game from 2nd place Duke. Earlier in the season, Duke shot lights out from beyond the arc in a close game in Chapel Hill, but UNC got it all back with their performance last night, capped off with a great defensive stand to keep the Blue Devils scoreless in the last 5 minutes of the game. The game was a sweet way for Tar Heel fans to head into the ACC tournament as the 1 seed and potentially the #1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, the bracket for which is released a week from today. This is generally the most exciting time of the year for fanatic sports fans like myself. The NCAA tournament bracket is always fun to fill out and around the end of the tournament, the MLB Baseball season kicks off, the NFL draft is in April as well and PGA's 1st major, The Masters are around this time too. 2008 is finally getting started and it's gonna be fun.

A couple other random basketball notes I'd like to point out. It seems as the college season is coming to a close, people are starting to paint their picture of this summer's NBA draft, which I make an event every year because it's so exciting to see potential future stars and discuss such ideas with friends. From what I've read, there's a consensus top 5 for this year and those guys are (in this order):

1. Michael Beasley - SF/PF - I can't say much about this one. It's completely deserved, as he's been a man among boys in the Big 12 conference, putting ridiculous numbers and literally carrying that Kansas State team on his back. He's gotten them to a NCAA tournament berth and he should leave after one season. Not only did he keep his word and still attended K-State when the man who recruited him, Bob Huggins, left for a better job, a job he never would have gotten had Kansas State not given him an opportunity when so many other passed (that's another story though), but he's put up astronomical numbers while leading this team. I would say he's similar to Kevin Durant of last season in terms of freshman impact, but Beasley's been better IMHO. Durant was magnificent, but Beasley basically has one teammate (Bill Walker) who helps him out, while Durant had quite a bit of talent around him, albeit they were all young. The numbers are similar, but their games are quite different.

2. Derrick Rose - PG - He's the consensus #2 on just about everyone's list. The only thing I could argue against Rose going at the 2 spot is that it's a deep pool for point guard in this '08 draft class (Jerryd Bayless, Ty Lawson, Darren Collison, DJ Augustin, OJ Mayo... the list goes on and on), but that's no knock on Rose. He's without a doubt the #1 floor general prospect. He's got the size at 6'3" and he's got all the tools to become at least an All-Star on the next level.

3/4. Depending on needs, I've seen Jerryd Bayless, PG out of Arizona, and Eric Gordon, combo guard out of IU. So far, all 4 guys I've thrown out here have been freshman and it's with good reason. All these guys have been putting up ridiculous numbers as 1st year players and will be scouted a ton over the next month. I like Bayless a bit more than Gordon since Bayless comes from a rich history of guard-producers with his position at 'Zona. Arizona's also got a 5 star point guard recruit coming in next season in Brandon Jennings. From what I've seen, he's going to be a "one-and-done" guy as well - ubertalented and has all the potential in the world to be great. With Gordon, I see him being an undersized, but athletic 2. He's a great talent, but has to work on quite a few areas of his game, including decision making, ball handling and defense. He's a great prospect, but I wouldn't say he's as much a lock as the other top 3.

5. This pick isn't quite as set in stone. I could see 3 different guys in this 5th spot. Between bigs Brook Lopez (Stanford) and DeAndre Jordan (Texas A&M) and guard OJ Mayo, I like this pick a lot because you have a few choices who are all great. I love Lopez' all-around game at Stanford and think he's athletic and big enough to make a difference on the NBA level. With Jordan, I don't know as much about him, but he's real long and big, which is a need for more than few NBA teams. I actually like Mayo the most out of these 3 (and perhaps even more than Gordon and Bayless) because I think he's got the highest ceiling to grow and develop. He's got so much talent and ability that given the right situation and motivation, he could become a top 10 NBA player some day.

The coming weeks will tell basketball fans so much about these players and it will be on what is IMHO the most exciting stage of them all, a single elimination tournament in which anything can happen. It's gonna be a fun ride. Just for the record before the brackets come out, my 4 #1 seeds are UNC, Memphis, UCLA and Kansas - in that order, and my 2 favorites have been UCLA and UNC all season. Those two teams are the most complete and play the best when they're on their games, which is more often than not.

After a Loooong Hiatus...

2008-03-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

I found a story that intrigued me and figured I'd give some of my thoughts. It's from the NFL and is about the ongoing soap opera that is my hometown team (from a while ago), the Cincinnati Bengals. This story is about an incident that may have involved Pro-Bowler WR, Chad Johnson, and Head Coach Marvin Lewis. The supposed incident "may" have happened 2 seasons ago in the playoffs, when the Bengals played in the 1st round against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Many Bengals remember this game as the one that could have been. The Bengals took the divisional crown from the Steelers that regular season and lost in the 1st round the eventual Super Bowl champs. Had Carson Palmer not been knocked out of the game on the 1st snap, and put out of commission for 6 months with a torn ACL, the Bengals arguably would have advanced. But that's a big "What-If". This story concerns Chad Johnson's altercation with his head coach though. The accusation against Chad was that he struck Marvin Lewis' head around the eye. This story is huge to me and should be to other Bengals fans as well considering Chad is the 2nd most dynamic, if not 1st, player on Cincinnati (Carson Palmer is #1) and Marvin Lewis is the supposed genius that turned around this franchise that was in the pits for about a decade.

I have loved Chad Johnson since he entered the NFL. He seemed like a good-natured, fun-loving athlete who was a key component in turning around the Bengals franchise. Not only that, but he also had the support of most critics, many of whom hate on Randy Moss and Terrell Owens all the time, those two being 2 of the most flamboyant wide receivers in the game, still. Chad always backed up his trash talk and media gathering attention and produced when it counted - on Sundays. The past couple of season however, it seemed that the self-dubbed "Ocho-Cinco" was starting to get negative attention on a franchise that was full of them. I don't need to remind you of the multiple arrests of many players on that team. Johnson was generally one of the guys that avoided that bad attention though. Then it leaked that he was butting heads with All-Pro starting QB Carson Palmer and subsequently, the trade rumors began to mount. Johnson out of Cincy? I personally was hoping it was all just a rumor. Things died down again as the Bengals were bumped from the playoff picture for the 2nd season in a row. It seemed like the team that was once up and coming was backtracking. This team with all the talent just couldn't get it together, so I couldn't really blame the media for stirring up controversy in the form of trade rumors. It would seem like the team needed to head in a different direction, even if fans like myself loved the personalities on this team. The leader, gun-slinging QB that is Carson Palmer, the quiet solid halfback in Rudi Johnson and the flamboyant, sometimes crazily outspoken star wideout in Chad Johnson. I could accept a change in this team, but with these allegations against Chad, something doesn't seem right. Now I believe that the Bengals must move someone and that someone has to be Chad Johnson. From a team perspective, clearly many of these players don't have the direction and maturity to play with one-another, which means they aren't going to win a title with this nucleus anyways. From a strategic standpoint, the team is built around offense, and it's been quite clear that you need a strong defense to win a title in the NFL. You keep your quarterback, but all other pieces are expendable. Chad Johnson needs to be moved because amidst the media playing him out to be one of the better WR's in the league, the way I see it, receivers who attract attention to themselves, are not great teammates. Guys like Marvin Harrison, and more recently Randy Moss, are soft-spoken and have that great talent. With those two attributes, you help your team on the field and keep everyone humble. There are 52 players on a football team and if one guys gets all the spotlight, ala Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson, the team chemistry is clearly not at a premium. I honestly don't care if the rumors are true or not, the fact that a story like this about your star player is believable means he needs to go, especially on a team where character is already a joke around the league.

I also need to comment on Marvin Lewis' side of the story. This man was brought in a coach of a bad team. He surprisingly turned it around far quicker than anyone could have imagined and made the correct and gutsy move to go with Carson Palmer after Jon Kitna had an All-Pro season. The man was loved for that move. Cincinnati was nothing without him and now many people have hope to make a run in the playoffs season after season. My question is: How can you keep a coach that was brought in as a previous defensive coordinator who can't break the top 20 in the league for defense? Also, how can you keep a coach that can't keep his players from getting arrested? A coach is supposed to be the leader and genius of a team. Marvin Lewis changed around a team that had a ton of talent on offense and doesn't seem to give a crap on defense. He got the team to the playoffs after a decade long drought. All that is good and dandy, but no coach should be immune to getting fired unless he's won multiple Super Bowls or is clearly the man for the job. Lewis is neither at this point. He's gotten this team as far as he's been able to (11-5 and a 1st round exit) and his time is now done. He and the Bengals both need to move on before Carson Palmer realizes that his time to win is thinning. Palmer's entering the prime of his career, now 5 seasons in, and he's the building block. Someone else needs to be brought in to fix that defense and cut all of the malcontents on this team, and there are quite a few. The team isn't going anywhere in the AFC as is and the 1st step in a positive direction would be to fire Lewis (or get him to "resign") and trade Chad Johnson while he still has value. PLEASE don't let the fans of the Cincinnati keep holding out false hope.

Yao Ming OUT

2008-02-26T17:44:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard yet, the news out of Houston is that Yao Ming is out for the remainder of the season, including playoffs with a stress fracture in his foot. This was breaking news to me since there was no hint of such a big blow for the Rockets. The Rockets, having won 12 straight are sitting in 7th in the West playoff race. Now, even if they do make the playoffs in the deep West, it's gonna be another one-and-out for T-Mac and Houston. I personally think this blow will bounce the 36-20 Rockets out of the playoffs since the West is so good and out of any #1 on those playoff teams, Tracy McGrady is probably the most injury-prone. Losing Yao is big in itself, the prospect of not having T-Mac from time to time makes this team's postseason dreams even more bleak.

From a fantasy perspective, I honestly almost fell out of my chair when I 1st read this this afternoon. I have Yao in one of my leagues and I'm currently in the hunt for the #1 overall seed and a deep run in the playoffs. With this news, needless to say my chances definitely dropped a bit. This was also probably the 1st big season-ending injury of the NBA season. No one with as big a name as Yao has been ruled out for the season yet. I picked up F Jamario Moon from FA after I found out the news, but I'm now down to 1 C-eligible player in that league. Over the next few days, I will be looking at guys like Anderson Varejao (just returning from his long injury), Josh Boone, Darko Milicic (again...) and Mark Blount. Before this injury, I might have been confident going into the playoffs (starting in less than a month), but with this I'm just hoping I can hang onto my top 2 seed and a 1st round bye (2 games behind 1st and 4 games ahead of 3rd). Losing Yao is huge since he was likely your 1st round pick (or early 2nd in my case) and he brings a ton of big man numbers to the table (FG%, FTM, FT%, pts, rebs, blks). It makes winning the title a lot harder, but if you pull it off, which I still plan on doing, it makes it all the sweeter.

This Yao injury also makes me question his durability for next season. It sounds as though Yao plans on returning to basketball just in time for the Beijing Olympic games, but that just scares me even more. Next season, if I'm in a spot at the end of the 1st round/beginning of the 2nd and this 7'6" center is available, he's not gonna be on my team. I will pass on Yao next season for sure unless 11 other people feel the same way and allow him to drop to me in the 3rd round. He's played an average of 55 games/season these past 3 seasons (including this one) and those aren't good numbers by any standards. We're looking at the new Marcus Camby as an offensive center right now, not good company to be in. People questioned Yao's durability at his size coming into the league, now those speculations seem pretty legitimate.

Last season I had something quite similar happen. I lost Gilbert Arenas toward the end of the season just before the fantasy playoffs. I won that league outright, 1st place regular season and postseason. I would even say that losing Gilbert with the season he had last season was a bigger loss than Yao at this point. So if you've lost Yao for the season, don't get too down on your team, find guys on the waivers and try to make up for his loss with more spot starts and activity. It just goes to show that the sporting world is quite unpredictable.

The Stretch Run

2008-02-22T13:42:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned, the All-Star has passed, and the stretch run for the playoffs is starting, with most teams having ~30 games remaining. This is also the time for fantasy players to start figuring out how their teams are going to look going into the playoffs, assuming your team is still in it (mine are in all 5 of my leagues; current standings in them are: 1st/1st/2nd/2nd/5th). With that said, this thread isn't about fantasy. As much as I don't really like to speculate about the end of the season, I will go ahead and give out some mid-season awards. I'll go ahead and give my favorite at this point and my close 2nd:

GM/Front Office: As ridiculous as this would have been last season (for both teams I'm about to mention), these two teams have gone from the potential bottom of their respective conferences to probable favorites. With that said the best front office goes to the Lakers. There are quite a few reasons for this too. Even with the relationship between Jerry Buss and Kobe Bryant at a low, the Lakers still never folded and kept their former unhappy superstar through the bad times and made this team a favorite again with a young core, great talent and depth. Keeping Bynum was also a key component. He looks like the next great Laker big man. He's only touched the his potential as he's been a great post presence on both offense AND defense this season, up until his knee injury. If he comes back healthy before the playoffs and gets back into game shape, the Lakers could be looking at a healthy, fresh Bynum going into the playoffs. Now that's scary. We obviously can't overlook the move in early February that put these Lakers over the top IMHO, that was getting Gasol for .00000000001 cent on the dollar. That was one of the MOST LOPSIDED deals I have ever seen or heard of. Enough said, the Lakers take this. The close 2nd would be Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics, who not only made the bold acquisitions of aging Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, but surrounded the PGA with great defensive players and surprisingly good depth with rookie Glen Davis, James Posey and Eddie House. They made great moves, but I still think Boston is 2nd to LA in this situation, not to take anything away from the C's.

COY: Phil Jackson. No doubt in my mind either. He's got 9 titles and looks poised to make a run for a record 10th. He's gotten everything anyone could have out of this Laker bunch that no one really expected to do much this season. Now they're sitting 2nd in the West and are just going to get better when their young stud Andrew Bynum returns. If this team wins 60 games, there will have been a total of 0 people who predicted that and Phil Jackson will be a bigger reason for that than people will give him credit. People have always said he's had the talent. Well, most people thought coming into this 2007-08 season, the Lakers didn't have too much talent or potential (Kobe quite clearly made his feelings known as well), yet Phil's got this team playing like a team and they are contenders. Whoever is 2nd isn't really close in this discussion, but I would have to put Byron Scott in there for consideration. I don't think he's a genius as a coach by any means, but he does have this team in a spot no one thought they'd be as well.

ROY: Reluctantly Kevin Durant. This award is honestly just a stats award and Durant's putting up 20ppg, while no one else is even close. This rookie class has also been a weak one so I'm barely even gonna call this an award. Durant's putting up 20pts while shooting a pitiful under 40% on the season. He's the most talented rookie so he should have the best numbers on a team that has basically no scorers, who can create their own shot. Al Horford is #2 on my list since he's got the 2nd best numbers and his team is in contention for the playoffs after a loooong layoff and he's starting at center for that team.

MIP: Rudy Gay. This award usually goes to a young, up and coming player and Rudy Gay fits the bill in every way. He didn't play that much last season, his rookie year, but this year he has emerged as the Grizzlies' building block and basically "untouchable" guy. The man has all the talent to be a perennial All-Star and has seen his scoring average increase from 10 to 20 this season. The Grizzlies aren't good by any means, but this guy is. My close second is Andrew Bynum, despite the extended time missed because he's been a beast while he was playing and definitely played a role in that Laker winning percentage before the injury and the Gasol trade.

DPOY: I think Marcus Camby has to get this award for the 2nd season in a row because without him, I don't see the Nuggets being able to play their crazy uptempo offense. He creates deflections, blocks shots, gets steals and rebounds at an amazing clip. All of these factor into being able to run. I love Kevin Garnett, who's impact has made the Celtics the hands-down best defensive team in the league, but Camby plays in the West and that's where the tougher competition is. This is probably the closest 1st vs. 2nd award for me since I love KG's impact in Boston, but I'm going Camby for now because of his arguably similar impact and his defensive numbers are better.

MVP: This would seem like the most controversial spot, but I'm going with Chris Paul. Maybe the Hornets hit some bumps before the end of the season, but they're in 1st place right now. No one even thought this team would make the playoffs, much less be in 1st place in the deeeeep West. You can call me out on the fact that I love Chris Paul and his game, but the way he's played this season and his impact on his team's record is undeniable. He's putting up 20+ppg, 11apg and 3spg. Those numbers are unheard of. NO ONE has ever done that. We can talk about how good that team really is and how "other teams have taken them lightly", but that doesn't deny the fact that they're in 1st place through 50+ games. Portland couldn't keep it up, but this Hornets team has. Honestly, people want to put Lebron, Kobe and KG into the equation as well, but IMHO it's not really close at the stage of the season we're at. I'll give my close second, but realistically it's a tie at the 2nd spot between KG and Kobe, although I may lean more towards Kobe. I have to put KG in there for his impact on the C's record and defense. Those defensive numbers are almost unprecedented in the modern era of basketball (I'd say past 1980, the Celtics as a team that is). The strongest argument for Kobe would be the fact that his numbers are obviously once again through the roof, but also that he's been deserving in the past, but has never won it before. For some reason, however, I don't think the media would be all that sentimental for Kobe and he won't get votes that way. Kobe's 28-5-6 line is great and his team has been great (2nd place in the West, just 1 game behind Paul's Hornets) and any of these 3 guys are fully deserving. I wouldn't be surprised if the media completely screws this up by the end of the season though and throw the award at Lebron James.

Like I said, I'm not a big fan of all this speculation and considering they don't give out midseason awards, this is almost pointless. A lot could happen between now and the end of the season considering there's about 30 games left, especially this season when nothing has been guaranteed by any means. It will be an exciting finish though and should be fun to watch which potential 50 game winner gets bumped from the playoffs, while half of the Eastern playoff teams might end under .500. Good stuff from the NBA.

Trades I've Missed

2008-02-22T09:54:00.001-08:00

Sorry about the long layoff even after the AS weekend in NO ended, but I had other responsibilities to attend to. There are quite a few exciting things to note though as the trade deadline passed yesterday afternoon. With it being over, we saw one of the most exciting deadlines in recent memory. Many teams made moves to try and contend for a title, basically a trickle-down effect after LAL made their huge move for former All-Star Pau Gasol. Many of the resulting trades I've already commented on, including Jason Kidd to Dallas, Shaq to Phoenix and Bibby to Altanta. There have been quite a bit of movement after those blockbusters as well however.

San Antonio made their under-the-radar move that could push them into contention as well. For Brent Barry, Francisco Elson and their 2009 1st rounder, they got Kurt Thomas, a guy to play alongside Tim Duncan and help defend the suddenly big frontlines of the West (Gasol/Bynum, Shaq/Amare come to mind). I think the move definitely improves the Spurs, who don't need Barry anymore IMHO with the emergence of Ime Udoka (a better defender and decent shooter in his own right) and Kurt Thomas is definitely an upgrade over Elson. I like the move a lot for the Spurs, but honestly, I don't think this aged team is as good as some of the other younger, improved teams in the West and even a couple of teams in the East. I don't usually disrespect/overlook the Spurs, who are there every season simply because they know how to win... but they don't win in consecutive years, and I don't see that changing this year. Needless to say though, the Spurs are chugging along and making their strides quietly like they always have. Before we know it, they'll probably be back in the conference finals yet again.

The Rockets and Hornets made the 1st move closing in on the deadline yesterday by swapping Bobby Jackson (to the Rockets) for Bonzi Wells and Mike James. This deal wasn't nearly as big a splash that many other trades have been this season, but it was still a big move for New Orleans. The biggest knock so far this season on the 1st place Hornets has been their youth and bench. They seem to have covered some toughness issues and depth issues. I think Wells will replace Mo Pete in the starting lineup at the wing. Peterson's been absolutely awful on a great team this year and you can't score 10+ppg with Chris Paul setting you up... not sure what you can do. Wells will bring a tough mentality to a team that wasn't lacking, but his presence in the post won't hurt. James will get more PT in New Orleans rather than the crowded small guard situation in Houston, who seemed to have no use for James anymore for whatever reason. New Orleans got James at a bad price (2 years left for $10+ million), but he brings depth and scoring to that bench, which they can use as much as they can get even though Jannero Pargo has been emergin recently. Houston gets rid of 2 guys who weren't playing that much, although I liked Bonzi as a backup to the oft-injured T-Mac. They still have role playing bench guys like rookie Aaron Brooks, Luther Head and rookie Carl Landry, who do very similar things as Wells and James and took on an expiring contract in Bobby Jackson, so overall the deal doesn't hurt them, but they did lose some depth. Bobby Jackson also has a good rep for being a tough guy, winning the sixth man of the year in the past as a guy who could hit clutch shots so he may actually improve a Rockets team that's now won 10 in a row and streaking.

By far the biggest deal yesterday occurred right at the deadline, an 11 player deal that involved Chicago, Seattle and Cleveland. Here's why I don't like how it happened. Basically, it seemed like Danny Ferry (Cavs' GM) made a huge trade happen to accommodate Lebron's "demands". I didn't like it when Kobe demanded and trade (and then retracted it and then it was on again...) and I don't like it when guys, even Lebron and Kobe, come out and call out their front office to get something done. Sure, it makes the league more exciting for fans like you and me, but it screws up the hierarchy in which the league is built. The owners and GMs are there and paid to make the decisions on who they believe fits best on a team and when you've got an All-World player like Lebron criticizing his talent around him, it just pressures the guys making the decisions, in this case Ferry, to make a rushed decision. With that said, I think the Cavs actually did win in this trade that sent Cleveland Joe Smith and Ben Wallace from the Bulls and Delonte West and Wally Szczerbiak from the Supes. The trade also sent the Bulls Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons, Shannon Brown and Larry Hughes from Cleveland and sent Seattle Ira Newble, Donyell Marshall from the Cavs and Adrian Griffin from Chicago. Every piece Seattle got was an expiring contract. I think they could have tried to get a draft pick or two as well, but hell, this deal was literally done AT the deadline (3 pm eastern yesterday). For Chicago, I was almost indifferent because they got an another awful contract, Larry Hughes, for the awful contract they gave up, Ben Wallace. They got a solid frontcourt guy in Gooden for one of their most consistent guys this season, Joe Smith. Albeit Gooden is younger, but I've never been a big fan of the guy. He just doesn't seem that good. The other guys are both young and we'll just have to wait and see what they can do... probably in the D-League though because of the Bulls' ever-growing "young nucleus" of talent. There are just too many "solid" players on that team with not enough minutes to go around. At this point, I am completely certain the Bulls could have swung a better deal for Gasol, at least than what the Lakers gave up. The most intriguing part for the Bulls is to see how Hughes affects Thabo's starting spot. Either way, with Hinrich, Thabo, Gordon, Deng AND Hughes, that's a lot of wing/guard players for 2-3 positions. I think Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas will get extended minutes now to see what they've got. Now onto the Cavs. I actually think the trade was pretty solid for them, not as good as some other people might suggest, but getting another shooter in Wally to help out Gibson from the perimeter definitely helps Lebron's ability to create and kick. Delonte West is the starting point guard right away and he should put up the roto numbers that we're used to so I would grab him if I have use for a guy who might put up 11pts, 4rebs, 4assts, a steal and a three. He should be pretty consistent playing alongside Lebron too. Getting Ben Wallace for the Cavs was an upgrade considering they got rid of Larry Hughes, who just couldn't play in Cleveland anymore. The Cavs also got Joe Smith who's proven that he's still got some game. The deal definitely puts the Cavs as the legit 3rd team in the East, which still means they'd be the 11th best team out West, but I won't get into that.

Kidd Deal DONE.. Finally

2008-02-19T17:22:00.000-08:00

The Jason Kidd deal to Dallas is done, this time for real. Kidd will be going over to the Mavs with fellow former Nets Antoine Wright and Malik Allen in exchange for Davin Harris, Desagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Maurice Ager, semi-retired Keith Van Horn along with 2 future 1st rounders (2008 and 2010). Hassell and Van Horn were the main changes in the deal because of Jerry Stackhouse and Deveon George's complications with the original proposal. Van Horn was brought out of retirement to finalize this trade and the NBA seems to have approved everything. I've already written a piece about the original trade and this one doesn't vary too much from that one so check it out if you want to know what I think about the new composition of the West and the fantasy implications of Kidd.

Now onto something else quite exciting around the sporting world. Spring training for MLB has recently started (last Friday I believe was when players began reporting), which mean fantasy baseball is just around the corner. Yahoo! has already begun its signup of leagues so you can technically join already and practice drafting your team(s). I'm already signed up for a couple and will list my roster once I've got a team drafted. I always like some practice before I begin giving my input. Amidst all the steroid talk and investigations, baseball will continue and it's just over a month before the 2008 season begins.

All-Star Weekend

2008-02-16T14:00:00.000-08:00

Things got off to a good start last night with the celebrity game on ESPN and rookie-sophomore game on TNT. The Sophomores won again (for the 6th straight year) and Daniel Gibson hit 11 treys en route to 33pts and the MVP trophy. Tonight is when most of the festivities occur however. Before I get to that, there's another potential trade on the cusp of being completed.

As we've seen with Dallas/New Jersey though, nothing is finished until the actual players report to their new teams. This deal is definitely worth talking about though, even though it is still pending. The suggested trade is between the Sacramento Kings and Atlanta Hawks involving guard Mike Bibby and 4 expiring contracts on the side of Atlanta. It's definitely an interesting deal since the Kings know they've got a proven starting floor general in Beno Udrih, who they've discovered can play at a high level given the minutes (he's also going to be the chief benefactor if this deal goes through, which I hope does because I've picked him up in ALL my leagues already). Atlanta gets the starting point guard who can hit big shots and take a ton of pressure off of Joe Johnson, who needs to focus mainly as a scorer (he's only shooting 40% from the field currently). With Bibby, I would expect Johnson's assist numbers to dip a bit, but his FG% will undoubtedly increase for the rest of the season. The Hawks are showing they are serious about making the playoffs after a long hiatus, while the Kings are looking forward to some huge salary relief this offseason to potentially sign some impact players for next season. The deal makes sense, although I have to wonder if the Kings could have gotten one prospect or player that has some value other than an expiring deal. Ironically enough, the Hawks are on the cusp of the playoffs in the East at 21-28 (tied with 8th seed Philadelphia), while the Kings are 23-28 and 8.5 games out of the 8th spot. That's some good parity between the two conferences.

Now for Saturday night, it should be a decent dunk contest with 3 freak athletic wings (Gerald Green, Jamario Moon and Rudy Gay) countered by the 'freak', Dwight Howard, but honestly I'm not that excited about it. There's no anticipated event quite like the Barkley/Bavetta race of last February. A couple of randoms as well I thought I might as well throw out there. I know that the NBA wants to support the WNBA, but the "Shooting Stars" contest needs to go. It's utterly useless and no one enjoys watching it (save for maybe a few people). They could go with a H-O-R-S-E contest and use WNBA players then (props to THE Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, for the idea) and that would be a legitimately fun event to watch or just use different events and cycle them in and out every few years. They can go with a "shooting stars" event, but then a race or something different the next season. Something unique every season and bring back older events once people have forgotten about them. This way people can be surprised from season to season and more interested in the events that aren't as traditional (like the 3-point shootout and Dunk contest). Hopefully TNT will do something though for tonight to be exciting. I'll be tuning in and out the whole night.

Thursday on TNT & of this shortened week

2008-02-14T22:54:00.000-08:00

There were just two games on tonight as TNT got in it's national broadcast before the weekend festivities.

The 1st was in Chicago, where the new look Miami Heat visited. The game was actually somewhat close, but the Bulls pulled out the win. Kirk Hinrich came off the bench again as a spark for the Bulls and produced a team high 24pts, while also getting 7rebs. Miami came up short again as they had production out of their new big two, but not much elsewhere. D-Wade had 30pts, 7rebs and 7assts while Marion put in 23pts, 7rebs and 4stls.

The next was a good one in Phoenix, where the Mavs were visiting. Devean George, as many of you have probably already heard, stalled the J-Kidd-to-the-Mavs talks, as his one year contract has the "early bird" agreement, essentially meaning he can turn down trades if he sees fit. I don't blame for not wanting to go to a bad team on a one year deal, but that definitely slowed down the excitement a bit going into the weekend. Ironically enough, he started tonight at forward, playing 43mins while only scoring 7pts. The Mavs are now looking towards the retired Keith Van Horn as a potential "expiring contract" to send to the Nets in George's place. Keep an eye on this until something works out, but as now it's all just speculation once again. For the actual game, Phoenix won it late by pulling away 109-97 and got their normal performances. Diaw should be owned in most leagues at this point since he'll be the main benefactor while Shaq's out (19pts, 8rebs, 5assts, 3blks tonight). Even when Shaq returns, I wouldn't say Diaw's value drops too much because it's not a given that Shaq won't get hurt again. For Dallas, they simply didn't have enough scoring options without the services of Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse AND Josh Howard. Dirk and Terry tried their best (36pts, 12rebs for Dirk and 29pts for Terry), but without another Mav scoring double-digits, they weren't going to beat the Suns.

One last note, Kobe's finger injury is apparently worse than at 1st thought. He's actually got a fracture in that pinky. I'm not gonna try to tell a competitor like Kobe what to do with his all-world body, but honestly if surgery if only going to cost them 6 weeks, he should take it. He would be healthy easily in time for the playoffs and if he keeps pushing off this injury, it may affect his play. As of right now, he plans to push it off until after the Olympics. Just so everyone's on the same page, that's until after SEPTEMBER, which is also right before the NBA season. It's a tough call, but he needs to get it fixed right now. As for this weekend, Kobe's obviously a starter at guard out in the West and a participant in the 3-point shootout. As of right now, Dirk has replaced him in the shootout, but Kobe plans on playing in Sunday's game. I don't know what the man is thinking, but he's a competitor like none other in the league. Hopefully this all works out for Kobe, but I personally don't believe he's going in the right direction.

NBA Top 10 February 13, 2008

2008-02-14T11:25:00.001-08:00

No news from last night since just about every team played, but that just means there were a ton of great plays and highlights to be seen. Here they are!

Also something of note, I thought this week was shortened to 3 days for whatever reason, but there ARE games tonight. If I misled you, I apologize.

Jason Kidd to the Mavs

2008-02-13T12:51:00.001-08:00

No joke, another blockbuster deal has been completed in the NBA (not really surprising that there are now more Eastern teams unloading big name players while the West is accumulating them). This time it was New Jersey trading All-Star starter Jason Kidd to the Mavs. The other parts of the deal included forward Malik Allen (NJN) in exchange for the Mavs' Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse, Desagana Diop, Devean George and Maurice Ager as players as well as the Mavs' 1st rounder for this upcoming draft, a future #1 pick in 2010 and the league max $3 million in cash. There was also a side deal in the works between the 2 teams that sent Antoine Wright for a 2nd round pick.

Now onto the analysis of the deal. Jason Kidd has clearly still been putting up huge numbers as a Net. On the Mavs, he instantly improves them in terms of gameplay. He's been an 1st team all-NBA defender in his career and he's also still one of the best distributing PG's in the game on a team that's still full of offensive talent. The main knock on the Mavs last season (even though they won 67 games) was their team-play. They were one of the worst assisting teams in the league. Even though they scored a ton, it was mostly one-on-one stuff. With Kidd, the Mavs become an elite power again (not that they weren't a top 5-10 team before the trade. Kidd gives the Mavs that "Big Three" that many teams have fallen in love with. With Dirk, Josh Howard and Kidd, the Mavs perhaps have the most balanced trio in the league. Dirk is a dominant inside and outside scorer, Kidd is that great floor general and Howard does all the little things at an All-Star level. This team lost some depth in the trade, but still became a top 2-3 team in making the deal. For New Jersey, they were still in the playoff race, but you have to pull the trigger on a deal like this. They were gonna unload Vince Carter's massive contract, but Vince wasn't the one being a malcontent. That honor goes to Kidd. They got a young point guard in Devin Harris, who still hasn't seen his best years yet and got some depth as well (Stackhouse is reportedly going to be bought out right away, perhaps to rejoin the Mavs) and got an extra pick in this year's deeeep draft pool. I can't really say either team lost in this trade.

As far as fantasy goes, it's a bit different of a story. The trade of Kidd originally would have been believed to have given the reigns to sophomore guard Marcus Williams. Not the case now with a guy like Devin Harris coming in. Harris is going to get all the minutes he can handle at point guard for New Jersey and his owners will reap the benefits. If an owner is dumb enough to try to trade him now, take him (for top 40 value anyways). The other Mavs that got traded over to New Jersey (Ager, Diop, George) I can't see producing anymore than they have all season, which is not enough to get on the deepest fantasy rosters. I will say that Ager's a young talent and New Jersey may choose to evaluate him before the season is over, or they could just ship him to the D-League. For Kidd, his scoring has been sketchy all season at best, but I would expect him to get his FG% up at least a little (from 37%) since there's no need to shoot bad shots with options like Terry, Dirk and Howard in front of him. Antoine Wright will probably be a 8th man bench player for the Mavs so take that anyway you want to.

One last interesting point to note. Now that Kidd's been traded out West, his All-Star spot is an interesting point of interest. In the East, he got more votes than AI did for a starting spot so it'll be interesting to see if he takes AI's starting spot and if he doesn't, someone on that bench (probably David West or Brandon Roy) is going to be very disappointed in getting his spot taken by the new Mavs guard. In the East, I HOPE David Stern gets this pick correct by giving Jose Calderon a spot on the team, but if he gives it to Ray Allen I would understand considering Kevin Garnett's already been scratched from the game. Boston deserves to have 2 representatives considering their accomplishments, but give Jose Calderon some love, PLEASE!

2nd Day of the Week...

2008-02-12T18:29:00.000-08:00

...And the second to last day of this AS, fantasy shortened week. There were only 6 games on tonight as teams are readying themselves for a break during the festivities this weekend in New Orleans. Tomorrow's a big day though, as there are 14 games and 28 out of the 30 teams in action.

- Tonight the action started in Indiana where the League-leading Celtics went in for a visit, winning 104-97 to put their record at 40-9. The Celtics played great D and got by without KG once again, this time with Paul Pierce leading the way with his 28pts and 12rebs. Leon Powe is a guy that needs to be watched now as he had 16pts and 9rebs in this contest. He's starting at center with the absence of Kendrick Perkins and playing well. If the Wolves ever feel they want to play small ball, he's shown that he can be their man, doing many of the little things to help the team win. Rajon Rondo had another solid night, scoring 12pts, grabbing 7rebs and dishing out 7assts. The Pacers had a balanced attack with 6 players 10+pts, but shot only 42.5% as a team and turned the ball over 16 times. Danny Granger led the way with 18pts and 10rebs.

- Atlanta held a lead over Detroit at home for a good portion of tonight, but in the final frame the Pistons took control to eventually win 94-90. Led by Rasheed Wallace (21pts, 5stls), the Pistons took the game from a surprising Hawks team at this point in the season. The Hawks, at 21-27, are the 7th seed in the East, which is more than they've been able to say in a while. Josh Smith almost got them the win with his 30pts and Al Horford chipped in 12pts and 16rebs, but Joe Johnson, their captain, didn't have it tonight (as has been the story many nights shooting only 40% this season) only going for 11pts on 3-13 shooting.

- In Jersey, the Nets continued their half-hearted push for a playoff spot against Minnesota. They won 92-88, but neither team looked too impressive. The Nets won behind Vince Carter's 17pts and 10assts, but shot only 42% from the field as a team. Nenad Krstic seems to be getting back healthy though. In only 15mins tonight, he shot 5-9 for 10pts and 8rebs. He's a decent option if he keeps this up, starts and stays healthy. Minnesota had a lone bright spot tonight in Sebastian Telfair (24pts, 7assts) in the ugly loss.

- Denver went into South Beach tonight and got a tough OT win against Miami in a great finish. Mark Blount (18pts, 13rebs in total) hit a game-tying jumper in regulation to send it into OT, but the better team, Denver, eventually pulled it out, 114-113. The Nuggets got huge games out of a couple of role players tonight while AI and Melo were both cold (14-43 combined). Kenyon Martin went 12-16 from the field for 24pts and 6 boards, while J.R. Smith had 28pts tonight with 8 threes off the bench. For the Heat, Marion and Wade were "who we thought they were" having spectacular nights. Marion had 23pts, 18rebs on 11-26 shooting, while Wade was identical from the field for his 29pts and 10assts. Dorell Wright is also shows flashes as the other forward in the Heat starting lineup (19pts, 8rebs in this one).

- In Memphis, the hometown Grizz pulled out a hot 2nd half to beat the Kings. Hakim Warrick was the story in this one starting tonight and going for 24pts, 13rebs. Needless to say, a huge game, while J.C. Navarro was solid himself as the 6th man off the bench with 19pts himself. For the Kings, Kevin Martin took 23 shots to get his 31pts and no one else shot much better. The team shot 37% as a whole while losing 94-107.

- The last game of the night surprisingly took place in the Midwest, where the Hornets visited the Bulls. The Hornets went back to playing their game and won this one easily down the stretch, 100-86. New Orleans was led by Chris Paul and David West as usual (25pts, 4rebs, 14assts and 27pts, 7rebs, 2blks, respectively), while Peja put in 6treys himself to score 27pts. The Bulls got Kirk Hinrich back from injury, but Chris Duhon remained in the starting lineup. Duhon played 30mins, while Hinrich played 25. I don't think this will be a competition, just a case of Hinrich just returning from an injury and perhaps was not 100%. One thing the Bulls can hope for is health after the AS Break. Currently sitting in the 11th spot in the East at 20-31 and only 2 games out of the 8th seed, a healthy Bulls team could easily make a playoff push.

Start of All-Star Week

2008-02-11T20:40:00.000-08:00

Only the Mavs play 3 times this week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday with Thursday-Sunday off for everyone) and they kicked off this exciting week on the NBA calendar in Philadelphia. The game looked putrid on paper as the Sixers won 84-76. The Mavs looked ready for a break as they only shot 35.1% from the field as a team and committed 14 turnovers. For Philly Andre Miller was solid again with 21pts, 8rebs and 7assts and showing teams why they should want him and is the main reason Lou Williams is still coming off the bench. Who knows, maybe the Sixers will keep him for the season considering nothing has been done yet.

San Antonio is looking forward to finishing up their long Rodeo road trip while playing and winning in Toronto tonight. They were led by Manu Ginobili who had 34pts, 15rebs, 6assts while making 6-12 treys. Needless to say, he helped a bit for owners in this shortened week. Jose Calderon was the main man for the Raps logging in 27pts and 6 dimes. He should be an All-Star and while he's not a forward, he should have been the man to replace KG rather than Rasheed (and I'm a HUGE 'Sheed fan). Other big news for the Spurs, they are expecting Tony Parker back from injury after this AS weekend.

In Orlando, it seems that after the Magic's hot start to the season, they have yet to put together another good run of wins. Tonight was no exception, Cleveland went into Florida and even though it was mostly a 2-man show again for the Cavs, Larry Hughes dropped 40pts to help the Cavs win 118-111. Lebron wasn't too shabby either with 29pts, 10assts and 7rebs. Orlando got their big games from their guys, but perimeter D (Hughes and Lebron?) was once again their issue as it has been for much of the season.

The Lakers won again tonight on the road in Charlotte and so far the Gasol trade could not have worked any better for LA. He had 26pts, 6rebs and 6assts tonight, playing 2nd fiddle to Kobe's 31pts. Ray Felton had a nice line with 29pts, 8assts and Nazr Mohammed added 22pts and 11rebs, but it wasn't enough to hold off the Lakers, who were efficient shooting 50% from the field and 29-34 from the line winning 118-111.

That other LA team won by the same margin at a different eastern conference arena. The Clips went into Milwaukee's Bradley Center and beat the Bucks, 96-89. They were led by rookie Al Thornton (25pts) who replaced the injured Tim Thomas in the starting lineup. Sam Cassell also chipped in 21pts and 8assts. For Milwaukee, Mo Williams had a rare great game with Michael Redd in the lineup with 31pts, but not doing much else. While Redd was bad from the field (3-13), he contributed by dishing out 11assts and grabbing 7 boards. Desmond Mason also recently made his return to the rotation taking over the starting forward spot and scoring 14pts in this one. Mason's been known for some scoring, but he doesn't score well from the line or from three so pick him up only if you expect some points contributions.

In Houston, the Rockets continued their playoff push against Portland, who's youth seems to be catching up with them. The Rockets won 95-83, led by Yao's 25pts and Rafer's all-around game (17pts, 7assts, 5rebs). The young Blazers just didn't have it on the road tonight. They got 22pts from LaMarcus Aldridge, but he took 26 shots and only made 10 of them.

In Golden State, there was a high scoring affair as there generally will be with the Warriors involved. Golden State pulled out a tight one in the end against the Wiz, 120-117. Washington was only playing with an 8 man rotation, but were hot early led by Roger Mason, who had 32pts and 6assts. The Wizard frontline both posted 20-10 games. Haywood had 20-10 and Jamison added his own 25-10 game. Golden State made up a 16pt deficit after the half though behind Stephen Jackson's season high 41pts.

End of the Week

2008-02-10T20:07:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the lack of news lately, but it was the weekend and I woke up too late this morning to beat the early start... Here are tonight's games though and hopefully it's not too late to get a jumpstart on next week.

- ABC had their early afternoon start in Boston, where 2 of the NBA's best clashed. Boston was hosting SA, who were still without Tony Parker. Rajon Rondo took advantage going for a rare double-double in categories besides points (12assts, 11rebs). Pierce led Boston to the win with his 35pts, while the Spurs could only manage 90pts against that nasty Celtic D. Duncan and Ginobili tried to keep San Antonio in it with 22pts, 14rebs and 21pts, respectively, but it wasn't enough.

- Shaq-less Miami hosted Kobe, Gasol and the Lakers next. Shawn Marion was in uniform and started for the Heat. The Lakers were too good though as Kobe led them with 33pts for a 104-94 win. Vladimir Radmonovic is back and starting. He only had 7pts in this one, but it's showing that Phil Jackson is trying out a big lineup for when Bynum returns. Marion had his usual numbers with 15pts and 14rebs in his debut and looks poised to keep performing at the level his owners are used to.

- New Jersey hosted Dallas in the early evening and beat a lackadaisical Mavs team, 101-82. Jason Kidd might as well as been having a try-out for the Mavs with his 13pts and 14assts. Nenad Krstic is back in the starting rotation at forward, but Sean Williams out-performed him today. Krstic only had 8pts in 17mins while Williams put up 15pts and 2blks in 25mins. For the Mavs, it looks like Barea will continue to start while Terry comes off the bench.

- Charlotte visited Detroit today and it wasn't even close. The Pistons romped the Cats, 113-87 behind Tayshaun Prince's 21pts. The Cats got 27pts out of Jason Richardson, but not much else. Emaka Okafor missed this game and while it may seem that Nazr started in his place, Coach Sam Vincent has recently given Mohammed the starting spot for the remainder of the season barring any major changes.

- In Minnesota, the Raptors won convincingly, 105-82. Jose Calderon led the Raps with 15pts and 10assts while TJ Ford backed him up with 13assts himself. Minnesota got Al Jefferson's 18-9 as usual. I'm keeping my eye on Randy Foye, however. He still seems to be getting back to game shape, shooting 4-10 with 8pts in 27mins tonight. Once he's healthy, I still can't tell what his ceiling would be. I'm considering dropping him right now, but patience could be a virtue in Foye's case.

- In Cleveland, Lebron and Larry Hughes were the only Cavs in double-digits, while getting pounded by the visiting Nuggets. Iverson and Carmelo went for 25pts, 13assts and 27pts, 8rebs, respectively. Lebron had 30pts and not much help anywhere else. Starting PG Eric Snow had 1pt in 25mins of PT.

- In Phoenix, there was an actual close game tonight. Washington went in injured and pushed the Suns, but just couldn't close on the road. The Suns won 108-107 behind Amare's 31pts and 13rebs and Nash's 10pts and 12 assts. Washington was without Caron Butler and Antonio Daniels, but got big production from their starters with their entire frontcourt going for double-doubles. Haywood, Blatche and Jamison had 21-10, 11-10 and 28-10, respectively and the Wiz backcourt, Roger Mason and Deshawn Stevenson, both had 18pts.

RE: QuickGM

2008-02-08T08:20:00.000-08:00

I made one of these endorsing the QuickGM simulation of being an NBA GM and season 7 will begin shortly after this weekend most likely. Check out my last description here:

QuickGM summary

or just check out the actual site at:

QuickGM

TNT Thursday

2008-02-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

The two late games tonight were both on TNT,. while there was a lone game on local networks in Philadelphia.

- The game in Philly wasn't much of one even though neither team is very good. Philly beat the lowly Heat 101-84, who were still awaiting the arrival of Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. Miami got double-doubles from Mark Blount and Dorell Wright (15-10 and 16-10, respectively) and were inefficient from the field shooting 36.2% from the field. Philly was solid, shooting 48.1% and getting 25pts, 8rebs, 3stls and 3blks from AI2.

- Two hot teams played in the 1st TNT game, Houston and Cleveland. The Cavs went into Houston and ran into a healing Rockets squad. T-Mac was sick for this game and spent much of the day in a hospital due to the flu, but still started and played just under 32mins. He struggled from the field, shooting only 3-11 for 8pts and 7rebs, but it's good to see him back in the lineup. Yao led the Rockets in the win with 22pts, 12rebs. Lebron was the only effective player on the Cavs' side shooting 12-23 for 32pts, 7rebs, 6assts and 4 on B/S (blocks/steals) line.

- The next was an exciting game as they usually are in Golden State. The Chicago Bulls were visiting, still without Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon. They ended up beating GS anyways on huge games from Chris Duhon (34pts, 9assts) and Joe Smith (27pts, 8rebs). Tyrus Thomas was also a pleasant surprise down the stretch for the Bulls, who had him in for Ben Wallace (10pts, but 0-7 FT's) and he scored most of his 15pts in the 4th quarter when the Warriors tried to make a run. Chris Webber made his debut, but only had 4pts on 2-5 shooting in 12mins. Monta Ellis was the story in this game going 11-12 for 25pts, Biedrins had 18rebs and Harrington came off the bench to score 20.

NBA Top 10 Feb. 6

2008-02-07T11:47:00.001-08:00

Lots of good games last night, which means there was no shortage of great plays. Here they are!

BLIZZARD...

2008-02-06T18:42:00.001-08:00

...in the Midwest. We got about 15 inches here over the course of the day in Madison, WI, but the electricity was up so I can update today's games. The biggest game of the night was easily in college, between perhaps the 2 biggest rivals in all of sports, Duke and North Carolina. Needless to say, most of my attention was towards this game. Here are the NBA games 1st though:

- In Atlanta, the Lakers continued their roadtrip with new big-man Pau Gasol. The Lakers were in control in the 4th quarter until Atlanta had some late game dramatics to eventually win 98-95. Kobe played facilitator for most of this one and only had 11pts to go with his 10assts, while Lamar Odom led 6 Lakers scoring in double digits with 19pts while adding 11rebs. Atlanta got big games from Joe Johnson (28pts), Al Horford (15pts, 20rebs) and Josh Smith, who was close to a triple-double again with 17pts, 9rebs, 9assts, 5blks and 2stls.

- In Orlando, New Jersey lost again and look more desperate than ever to trade Jason Kidd and/or Vince Carter. I don't think anyone will take on VC's huge contract, but Jason Kidd could be a possibility for some contenders. The Magic beat the Nets pretty easily, 100-84. Jameer Nelson returned for the Magic again off the bench to outplay Carlos Arroyo (starting) 25mins to 5mins, while scoring 11pts and dishing 8assts to Arroyo's donuts in both categories. I still believe neither of these guys are that ownable in the platoon situation.

- In Washington, there was a defensive battle between the Wiz and the Spurs. SA pulled it out in the 4th quarter, winning 85-77, while the Wizards were once again without Caron Butler, out with a hip injury. Andray Blatche started again in his forward spot and played well again with the minutes, 16pts, 15rebs, 2blks. Watch Butler's condition closely again because Blatche is a good option while Caron is out, but doesn't get the consistent minutes while Butler plays.

- The Knicks are once again reeling with another loss to Indy (7 losses in a row now). The Pacers got 24pts and 7rebs off the bench from Kareem Rush, while the Knicks played Renaldo Balkman 34mins off the bench as an energy source (12rebs). The Knicks might as well be done at this point and just go for Michael Beasley as the #1 pick and try to get someone to bite on Eddy Curry and/or Zach Randolph in the offseason (knowing the Knicks though, they will probably draft OJ Mayo #1 overall if they get the pick).

- The Heat (right after the Knicks almost on cue) lost again as well after trading Shaq for Marion and Marcus Banks from the Suns to the Pistons. The trade is pending so Miami and Phoenix were both playing shorthanded tonight. Nothing surprising really happened in this game for fantasy implications (read my last entry "HUGE NEWS" for my take of the PHX/MIA trade), but Rasheed did have a big game with 26pts, 10rebs.

- Boston won again tonight at home against the LA Clippers. Rajon Rondo might have had his best game of his career opposite Sam Cassell, the main guy in rumors that the C's might sign to "help" out Rondo at the 1 spot. Rondo finished with 24pts, 5rebs, 8assts and 4stls leading the 111-100 Celtic win. Corey Maggette had a huge game as well with 33pts, 8rebs returning to the starting lineup along with Chris Kaman.

- In Big D, Dirk had a huge game finishing with a triple-double (29pts, 10rebs, 12assts) against the team that drafted him, Milwaukee. Milwaukee got a big effort out of Mo Williams, who had 36pts. The Bucks were without Michael Redd again and stuck in this one for most of the night because of the play of Mo Williams and Andrew Bogut (24pts, 14rebs). I honestly believe this team is better off without Michael Redd and that when he's in there it screws up their offensive and defensive rhythm.

- Utah won again to extend their Northwest division lead and win streak. They beat divisional foe Denver tonight in Denver, who had a boost with return of starting center Marcus Camby. Camby had 11pts, 17rebs and 4blks. Melo is also back and had 29pts, 8rebs. Deron led the Jazz win with 29pts, 11assts and Kyle Korver stole the show off the bench to play 36mins and score 27pts. Brewer had a bad game as a result playing only 16mins and only scoring 7pts in the process. Utah won 118-115 in OT.

- New Orleans won the best game of the night in dramatic 2OT over the Phoenix Suns, who were shorthanded with the trade pending with Miami. Chris Paul returned to form going off for 42pts, 9assts and 8stls. The Suns had 4 20+pt scorers (Nash, Amare, Diaw and Leandro). Nash went for the wrong triple-double with 32pts, 12assts and 10 TO's. Amare went 20-20 with 26pts, 20rebs. Diaw is suddenly ownable again with center-eligibility and a spot in the starting rotation with Marion heading out and an injured Shaq coming in. New Orleans won 132-130.

- At Arco Arena, Seattle got a rare win. The Kings were without Brad Miller, who was out with his finger injury. Mikki Moore got the center start and John Salmons got a start at forward. The Kings missed Miller's passing skills and had little rhythm throughout the 105-92 loss. Seattle got a big triple-double performance out of Earl Watson (23pts, 10rebs, 10assts) while shooting 52.6% as a team while holding the Kings to 36.7% shooting.

- The Bulls almost snook out with a big road win out in Portland (lost 97-100). The Bulls were without guards Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon. Chris Duhon got the start, while Thabo Sefolosha tried his hardest to carry the team (22pts, 6assts, 3stls, 2blks). Portland got their usual all-around game with a slight change in the starting rotation. Martell Webster got bumped to the bench in favor of Jarrett Jack at guard. Webster played a bench high 21mins, but only had 8pts.

As for Duke/UNC, I watched the entire game and I have nothing more to say.

HUGE NEWS

2008-02-05T22:01:00.001-08:00

Late in the night, right after there were just rumors circling Shaquille O'Neal, he returns to the Western conference to the Phoenix Suns this time. The trade pending is Shaq for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks and barring a failed physical, this deal will go through. This deal is huge for a couple of reasons. It shows that the Pau Gasol deal might lead to more big trades this season since Memphis pulled the trigger so early. Normally the big deals don't get done until the deadline, but the Grizz got what they wanted and accepted what I thought was an awful deal. Now the rest of the West feels they need to play catch up and it began with Phoenix by addressing their own big man needs (especially on defense) by acquiring Shaq. The 2nd part of this is that Phoenix (who's already sitting atop the Western standings) has 2 dominant big men. I don't care what people say about Shaq being washed up, but the fact is he's been one of most dominating players in NBA history and now he's playing alongside Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash, not to mention other talents like Grant Hill, Raja Bell and Leandro Barbosa. He's not gonna get get doubled and tripled in Phoenix. That's a huge load off his back, literally. He's going to be more effective in Phoenix with Steve Nash finding a way to use a force like Shaq (Nash is that good a point guard) and potentially push this team over the top. I think the rest of the West needs to think long and hard about how good they are because the teams to measure themselves up to are the Suns and Lakers right now without a doubt.

As for Miami, I think they're done. People can argue that Marion is an athletic player, who has All-Star potential, to go with Wade's playmaking and scoring ability, but the Heat don't play good defense and Shawn Marion has never been successful as a #1 or #2 option. He's a millionaire's garbage-man player, if that makes any sense. It's not going to happen for Miami. My advice is keep losing and hope to draft a PG like Derrick Rose or Jerryd Bayless or someone else with a lot of potential in the summer. If you want to talk about Marcus Banks, then all I have to say is...

In the fantasy perspective, I can't see too much changing. The one guy who could be hurt in all this would be Shawn Marion. He's always been a guy who's thrived in the Phoenix system by scoring on wide-open threes and running the break and getting those fantasy rarities by gambling in the lane and blocking shots, but now he goes to the worst team in the NBA. This team is old and looks old. No one plays with much energy and Marion's game thrives on energy plays. Without that, he might just be a guy who looks lost on offense and just stands around for most of the game. For Shaq, once he's healthy and able to play, his numbers should be about where they're at right now. At this stage in his career, you can't even expect him to get you 20ppg, but he will help the Suns win. Another guy who might not seem useful at 1st, but undoubtedly will be is Boris Diaw. He's been sitting on that Suns bench for most the season, getting erratic playing time, but now with Marion gone and an injured Shaq incoming, he's gonna be inserted into the starting rotation and will be there for as many games as Shaq's injured. Since the Suns currently occupy that 1st seed, I don't see them rushing Shaq back at all. Diaw, given the minutes, can give you a bit of everything and coming from the center spot, he's definitely worth a flier.

All this being said, I can't really trash either team for making this deal. The Suns needed to do something to push themselves over the top and get some confidence that they can win the whole thing. Shaq definitely does that. For the Heat, it's a win just to get rid of Shaq's huge contract and they got an All-Star caliber player back, although I don't think Marion is a perennial All-Star outside of fantasy and Phoenix by any means. Many players are changing places very quickly and I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot more trades before February 21st (trade deadline). Keep your eyes open.

Super Tuesday!

2008-02-05T18:34:00.000-08:00

It's actually the day that the main Presidential candidates are chosen. I don't pay too much attention to politics most of the time, but I am a minority and there are two for the Democrats, one of which will win the Democratic Presidential bid, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, for those of you who haven't been conscious for the past 12+ months. This IS a big deal no matter how indifferent you are to politics. A woman and a black man are on the brink of the White House. It's a very exciting time for the US, a country whose history has been built by rich white men. That's about all I have to say about today besides the games of course. Here they are:

- San Antonio went into Indiana tonight and dominated the 2nd half. They were tied at 59, but in the 2nd half, SA pulled ahead and won 116-89. The Spurs got a very balanced performance with 7 players in double-digits with Tim Duncan leading them with 19pts, 15rebs. Jamaal Tinsley came off the bench again for 18mins played and only scored 8pts. He doesn't seem to be back at 100% yet so play him at your own risk.

- Boston and Cleveland played in a great one tonight, with Lebron pulling the Cavs by the KG-less C's. Lebron was Lebron again tonight with 33pts, 9rebs, 12assts, 5stls and 2blks. Needless to say, probably the player off the night, especially in fantasy talks. Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo tried to keep the Celtics afloat with 24pts, 5rebs, 5assts and 20pts, 7rebs, respectively.

- In Philly, the young Sixers beat the Wizards, 101-96. Andre Miller had 14assts for the Sixers, who streaked in the 4th to make up a 10pt deficit. Those of you who have picked up Thaddeus Young are reaping the benefits (17pts, 9rebs in this one). Brendan Haywood had 18pts, 8rebs, but it wasn't near enough.

- The Lakers won against Jersey in Pau Gasol's debut with the team (105-91). He started at center and played great (24pts, 12rebs, 4assts). This game was one of the most telling games I've seen the Lakers play for a while. They beat a team by 10+pts and Kobe was held to single digits scoring (for the 1st time in like probably 2-3 seasons). Fisher got 28pts himself in the Lakers win. New Jersey got a surprising 19pts, 10rebs from Bostjan Nachbar and Vince Carter added 27pts, but Jersey lost after sticking close behind the Lakers for most the game.

- Milwaukee beat the new-look Grizzlies on the road tonight (102-97), but it was the Bucks who had a new look on the starting lineup with Yi Jianlian and Michael Redd missing this game. The Bucks had 3 non-regular starters, Royal Ivey (4pts in 36mins), Charlie Villanueva (16pt, 16rebs) and Charlie Bell (17pts). As far as I can see it, the Bucks need to restart. Michael Redd is NOT a #1 man on any team in this league, unless you call Lebron James a #2 to Redd's #1 status (hint: I'm being sarcastic). The Bucks need to restart building around the talented bigs they have in Andrew Bogut and Yi Jianlian. They have a solid core, but Michael Redd's big contract hinders them to be able to make a big move. The new look Grizz started Hakim Warrick (4pts in 22mins), but JC Navarro still had more PT and points (7). It's tough to say how Marc Iavoroni is going to play out his roster, but that 5th starting spot looks to be up for grabs right now.

I also have one other piece of big news. These are just rumors, but it does involve the biggest figure in the NBA for the past decade, Shaquille O'Neal (arguably Tim Duncan, but Shaq's actually bigger in size so I'll give it to him and his more flamboyant personality). If these do happen, I would think the Heat respect Shaq enough to trade him to a legit contender, but at this point if I were Heat management, I would try to trade Shaq anyway I could. They aren't going anywhere this season and Shaq's cap number is huge for another 2 seasons after this one.

NBA TV Top 10: February 4

2008-02-05T12:36:00.001-08:00

Last night's best including some dramatic buzzer-beaters and the return of TJ Ford. It's good to see he was able to make a recovery.

Super Monday?

2008-02-04T18:32:00.000-08:00

Huge night for sports tonight the day after the biggest game of games in the US (the Super Bowl if anyone was wondering). 9 games around the Association and some big news elsewhere as well.

In NCAAB, Bobby Knight of Texas Tech, more famous for his years at Navy Academy and Indiana University, resigned from the Red Raiders to leave his son, Pat Knight, as Head Coach. Knight's coaching career was highlighted by 3 national titles (all at IU) and 4 final fours even though he only had one eventual HOF player on all of his squads, Isiah Thomas (clearly not the coach/talent-evaluator his mentor was). Knight was known just as well for his antics off the court, repeatedly losing temper with his players and sometimes physically "harming" them due to his fiery nature. I've always loved Knight's attitude towards the game. He was always passionate and need to win. He got the best out of his players because they understood how much he loved the game. He now goes out of the game on top, with 902 career wins and tied for 3rd all-time in national titles (3) only behind John Wooden's legendary 10 (probably won't ever be surpassed, the college game is just too deep) and Adolph Rupp's 4. Knight has to go down in history as one of the top 3-5 greatest coaches ever at his sport.

That had to be the news of the day (and perhaps week) with such a legendary character in the sport, but there were some professional games as well:

- The 1st game of the night took place in Orlando between 2 good teams. Dallas went into Florida on the road and took this game. Dirk struggled in the 1st half, but still finished with 20pts, 9rebs and 5 dimes, while Josh Howard was solid for the whole game (28pts, 7rebs). Jose Juan Barea got the start (not Jason Terry), but played under 20mins. Terry did play close to 30mins and scored 20pts. Dallas won the game after leading for most of it, 107-98. For Orlando, Carlos Arroyo got the start at guard and scored 12pts in 28mins.

- The next game was also in the southeast, where Josh Smith came close to having the fantasy game of the year. He had 8blks in the 1st half and finished with 19pts, 9assts, 6rebs, 4stls and 9blks. He was one steal away from the rare 5x5 game (5pts, rebs, assts, stls and blks) and an assist and block shy from the 2nd pts-rebs-blks triple-double of this season (Marcus Camby). The potential a guy like Josh Smith has is just crazy fantasy-wise, he helps you in so many ways and if he ever figures out a way to shoot a higher percentage, he would have virtually no weakness in his game. For Philly, Thaddeus Young got the F start again and he scored 11pts and grabbed 6 boards. He's worth picking up in deeper leagues because I think he'll continue to start. Andre Miller also had a huge game with 29pts, 6rebs, 6assts. Atlanta pulled out this one in the end, 96-91.

- In the NYC, that other LA team was in town for a visit and showed the Knicks to be the Knicks once again, winning 103-94 after NY was up 9 at the half. David Lee returned back to the bench with the return of Eddy Curry at center (19pts in 30mins). For the Clips, they got back both Corey Maggette and Chris Kaman in this one, their 2 best players. Both of them came off the bench, but played well in the win. Kaman had 15pts, 9rebs and Maggette led the Clips in scoring with 19pts and also grabbed 6 boards. I fully expect both guys to return to the starting rotation soon, Kaman for Josh Powell and Maggette for any of Cuttino Mobley (G), Tim Thomas (F) or Quinton Ross (F). Elton Brand will be back soon as well for the Clips so plan accordingly, which means maybe move Kaman while he's still at the height of his value.

- There was another Florida game tonight. This one wasn't so close with the Raptors beating the Heat down on South Beach 114-82. The Raps got solid games from multiple players including Andrea Bargnani, who had 22pts, while the Heat as a squad just struggled. They got a solid game from Dorell Wright (17pts, 8rebs) off the bench, but not much else anywhere.

- There was a dogfight in Minnesota, where the Rockets were visiting. The Rockets are a team who are finally getting healthy with both T-Mac and Yao starting and playing solidly in this defensive game. T-Mac hit big shots down the stretch, a 2 to lead (87-86) and another three about a minute later to ice the game (90-86) as he finished with 26pts, 6rebs and 7assts while Houston ended up winning 92-86. Rick Adelman had Yao, Tracy, Rafer, Luis and Shane starting in a lineup that many people thought would be the opening day roster. I think this is a sign that he's finally figuring his team out and this lineup should be relatively consistent for the rest of the season barring injuries. Minnesota got another huge game out of their future, Al Jefferson, who had 33pts, 16rebs, 3stls and 3blks.

- In Utah, we once again have the Chris Paul/Deron Williams matchup that every writer in America loves for whatever reason. I don't really see a comparison, but that's just me. I honestly don't believe Deron even belongs in the same breath as Paul, but I will hand it to him. He outplayed CP3 like crazy tonight. The Jazz killed the Hornets and Deron's play versus Paul's non-effectiveness was a main component of the 110-88 score. Deron finished with 29pts, 11assts on 11-13 shooting from the field while Paul had 6pts and 6assts on 3-11 shooting on a rare poor performance. Jannero Pargo was the lone guy who did decent for NO (24pts on 9-14 shooting)

- Phoenix won again to extend their 1st place lead in the West with a home win over the always feisty Bobcats. Leandro Barbosa was explosive off the bench with a game-high 30pts, while Nazr Mohammed has regained his starting spot at center, moving Emeka Okafor back to power forward. Nazr has good value when he's starting so go get him if he's available. Gerald Wallace is gonna be out for over a week with a foot sprain.

- There was a good one in the northwest between two talented playoff hopefuls and divisional foes. Denver went into Portland pushed an OT victory in dramatic fashion. Melo and AI were both huge in this one (28-15-5 and 25-6-8 respectively). I think Melo might also be turning a corner in terms of his game. He's been rebounding the ball better recently than he ever has in his career and that will only boost his fantasy value. He's always had the size to rebound well (6'8, 240lbs), but has always played away from the basket, but now it seems like he's making it a point to rebound the ball better (career high 7.1rpg and double digits in 6 of his last 9 games played). For Portland, they got gutsy games from Brandon Roy, as usual (26pts, 7rebs, 8assts), and Jarrett Jack, who came close to a triple-double (17pts, 9rebs, 9assts, 3stls).

- Chicago @ Seattle was the last start of the night. Chicago is starting to get healthy again (Ben Gordon and Joe Smith are both back with Luol Deng returning soon). Joe Smith got the start at forward, while Joakim Noah returned to the bench. Smith was back to his pre-injury form with 25pts, 10rebs and the Bulls had a solid all-around game from multiple contributors (9 players scoring 6+pts) and won 118-108. Seattle started Damien Wilkins for the injured Jeff Green again and got no production from that forward spot as usual. Whoever is playing at that spot right now isn't producing so there's no point to own the Sonics' starter at that spot at this point.

Super Bowl Sunday

2008-02-03T19:58:00.001-08:00

No update for games from last night because there were a lot and today's games were early and already occurred. Sorry about that. Today, as many of you might have been aware already, there was an NFL game to determine the best team of this NFL season. For this reason, both NBA games (ABC aired) were in the morning and early afternoon.

The Pats were heavily favored coming into this game (12 point favorites I believe). The Giants shocked the undefeated (18-0) Pats in the 4th quarter by taking a 10-7 lead before eventually winning 17-14. The Pats were up 7-3 for most of the game after scoring their 1st TD early in the 2nd quarter (they were on the 1 yard line at the end of the 1st). The Giants played hard on defense, especially on the D-line, getting past the Pats and hitting Tom Brady over and over throughout the game. Brady simply couldn't get a rhythm and the Pats' D couldn't keep stopping Eli Manning (the SB XLII MVP, one season after Peyton Manning won it) as he led the Giants to the win with the winning TD pass to Plaxico Burress. Honestly, for me, I'm fine with the Pats losing after being 18-0. I was rooting for the 19-0 season that's never been seen before, but I also thought to myself, as this quest for perfection was falling apart, I don't feel bad. This was so for two main reasons. First was the fact that the Giants were huge underdogs and it was great to see a "David" slay a "Goliath". I also don't believe that garbage-talk that says the loss in the Super Bowl taint the Pats incredible run at perfection. The Pats had a great season and fell one game short of the title that would have capped it off, but they were truly great. I believe that memory won't be as great, but they will be remembered for various reasons. The next reason isn't as merry. I rooted against this team for much of the season because of their swagger. I hated the way Bill Belichick strutted around the sidelines and disrespected reporters in the press-rooms. I just believe that his demeanor makes him believe he's always been disrespected and hasn't gotten his. Well, he's got 3 SB wins and is put into the same breath as Bill Walsh and Chuck Noll, I honestly don't think anyone can say he's not one of the greatest of all time. He needs to embrace his position and show some emotion every once in a while so people (fans) can believe he's at least half-human. I understand the Pats use their coach's mental toughness to an advantage, I just think Belichick might take it a bit too far. Other than that, I give all the credit to the Giants and their suffocating pass-rush defense; they were completely ridiculous. The Giants played harder it seemed and they won the game behind their much-maligned quarterback, who is now a Super Bowl MVP.

Here are the NBA games:

- The Lakers visited the Nation's capitol in the 1st game and beat the Wiz even without newly acquired big man Pau Gasol, 103-91. Kobe was good again with 30pts on 10-15 shooting to lead the Lakers and Caron Butler returned from injury to start and play 39mins to score 15pts (5-15 shooting). Butler might not be 100% quite yet with this bad shooting game, but it also might have just been a bad game after injury. As long as he's playing, you gotta keep him in your lineups.

- The other game was a blowout in Detroit. Surprisingly, the other team was a good team as well in Dallas, who just didn't have "it" losing on the road, 67-90. Devin Harris was still out, as Jason Terry got the start at guard. Rasheed Wallace led the Pistons, who were great on D and solid on O, with 21pts, 9rebs and 4blks.

Friday Night on ESPN

2008-02-02T11:20:00.000-08:00

I've already noted the Lakers great move in getting Pau Gasol, so here are last night's game after the trade:

- The Lakers were actually in action 1st continuing their extended roadtrip in Toronto. They got a big win, 121-101, with a huge game from Kobe (46pts on 28 shots) and still 4 other Lakers scored double-digits. Kobe looks to be putting his name atop that MVP list. Andrea Bargnani is becoming solid again (28pts in this one).

- Houston visited Indy next and pulled out a narrow victory (106-103) in T-Mac's return (again). McGrady had 19pts and 9assts in this one. The Pacers were led by Jeff Foster's 13pts, 17rebs and Danny Granger who had 22pts. Jamaal Tinsley played in this game coming off the bench to play 21mins and score just 2pts, but did have 8assts. Tinsley's never been a huge scorer so expect that he'll be fine and contributing in the starting rotation again soon.

- In Philly, Orlando got the win in another close one (108-106). The news in Orlando lately has been JJ Redick's frustrations and trade requests (putting it lightly; he got the DNP - CD in this one). My take on it is that he just needs to shut up and sit on that bench considering he's basically telling the league that he'd rather play on a bad team and get minutes then play on the contender that he's on. He should sit on that bench and wait until Stan Van Gundy has a reason to play him. He was an undersized, slower, not very athletic 2-guard coming out of Duke anyways. I understand he was a great scorer in college, but that doesn't mean anything in the bigger, stronger, faster NBA. The Magic are a contender and Redick needs to just enjoy the ride. I do think that the Magic are better served sending him to the D-League to develop a little if they aren't going to use him at all. The Magic and Sixers both had all 5 starters in double figure scoring, but the Sixers just didn't have enough. I'll give dap to Hedo in this game (23pts, 7rebs, 6assts), who should be in the ASG, but got snubbed. I can't really say who he should replace (maybe Antawn Jamison), but the Wizards are a more surprising team without the services of Gil and Hedo is the more surprising player (between him and Jamison). Tough call, but I do think Hedo has to be one of the top alternates if someone goes misses due to injury or other matter.

- Minny got their biggest margin of victory this season beating a bad Clippers team, 104-83, who were still without Chris Kaman, another snub (although I don't think so since the Clippers have been awful). Al Jefferson was his usual 20-10 self with 25pts, and 11rebs, while Gomes continues to prove that he needs to be owned in all leagues. He's that team's 2nd option right now (18pts, 9rebs) even with the return of Randy Foye (5pts off the bench again in this one) and Rashad McCants being a solid scorer (14pts).

- In Miami, New Jersey became the most recent team to beat the Heat. D-Wade only had 15pts in the loss as the Heat leading scorer. Jersey got 25pts from Jefferson, 15pts from Boone and 14pts, 11rebs from VC. Luke Jackson has been a decent scorer for the Heat recently (double digits in his last 3 games and 10pts off the bench in this one, he had been starting in Haslem's absence, who's still out).

- In Washington, Utah got a win that they hadn't been getting in the early season. Both Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer struggled from the field (6-23 combined), but Mehmet Okur carried the scoring load with 27pts, 11rebs, 5assts. Antawn Jamison had 31pts and Andray Blatche had 19pts and 13rebs in Caron Butler's starting spot. He's shown that while starting, he's a legit source of rebounds, blocks and some scoring. Pick him up until Caron Butler returns.

- In New Orleans, the Hornets are starting to show some signs of weakness, losing 2 games in a row after a 9 game win streak. Chris Paul was still Chris Paul, scoring 15pts and dishing out 19assts in this one, but NO came up short 103-112 against Sacramento, led by Brad Miller (22pts, 14rebs and 4assts). Sacramento as a team made 10 threes.

- The biggest blowout of the night came in GS, as it will when the Warriors are hot. They beat the Bobcats 127-96, shooting 54.8% as a team and making 10-18 threes. They got scoring from all 12 players on the roster, led by Monta Ellis' 21pts. The Cats got a big game from Emeka Okafor (20pts, 18rebs), but it wasn't close to enough. The Cats also picked up Earl Boykins for the rest of the season, hoping he can help them make the playoffs. He'll need some time to get back into game shape, but he could be a decent option for scoring if he cracks the starting lineup (in place of Jeff McInnis) and/or Raymond Felton gets injured, as he's been a bit injury-prone during his young career.

- The lone OT game came in the Pacific northwest in Portland, where the Knicks played tough. Brandon Roy had a solid triple-double with 21pts, 10rebs, 11assts to lead the Trailblazers and showed why he should be an All-Star, making my reasoning that he shouldn't be one look dumb. The Knicks were without Eddy Curry and David Lee got the start at center (14pts, 15rebs) and probably should be starting on a team as bad as the Knicks. Jamal Crawford played a game high 50mins and had just 13pts on 6-27 from the field (1-11 from three).

The 1st move to get things going

2008-02-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

Memphis F/C Pau Gasol was traded to the LA Lakers this afternoon for F/C Kwame Brown, rookie PG Javaris Crittenton and 2 future #1 draft picks. This might be the worst deal in Memphis history, which isn't surprising since Jerry West just left the franchise. They went from a great HOF worthy GM to the next Isiah Thomas. That's like going from a Ferrari to a Ford Escort. I don't know who their GM is currently, but I'm sure ESPN and other analysts will be revealing that information shortly enough to bash him. Pau Gasol is a legit All-Star in this league and with him, Kobe and Bynum with what is already one of the deepest teams in the league, the Lakers immediately go to the top as a top 2 or 3 team once Bynum returns (hopefully he is healthy and as good as he was before the injury). Memphis is clearly looking to build around Mike Conley Jr. and Rudy Gay, both of whom are potential perennial All-Stars in the NBA, but I just don't understand the Crittenton part of the deal. The Grizz could have gotten someone better and more useful to their franchise. They could have gotten Turiaf in return and it would have made more sense. You're telling me the Lakers wouldn't get Gasol if they had to give away Turiaf and Kwame? I guess the Grizzlies got 2 future first rounders... Too bad those picks will be in the late 20's now that the Lakers are a supreme power once again.

Now to the fantasy implications this season. Rudy Gay was already leading the team in scoring, but now his rebounding numbers will increase as well with leading rebounder Gasol gone. He was already a pleasant surprise for owners this season, but now I expect him to explode being THE #1 option and without any argument elsewhere about being "1A" to Gasol. Gay is the most obvious player that will increase production on the Grizz, but other guys like Navarro and Milicic will be depended upon more in areas as well. I expect Darko to return to his early season numbers of 10ppg, 7rpg and 2bpg here on out and Navarro to be more consistent in scoring because they will need him. For the Lakers, they've got maybe the best starting five in league now once Bynum returns:

1. Derek Fisher
2. Kobe Bryant
3. Lamar Odom
4. Pau Gasol
5. Andrew Bynum

That is just sick. With this much talent, I see Kobe's numbers dipping just slightly, but he will play harder on D and be in line for better assist and steals numbers. I think he's got a legit shot at the MVP now for this season. The Lakers are once again a force to be reckoned with and those people who trashed Jerry Buss and Mitch Kapchuk need to issue their apologies because they have this star-studded team near the top once again.

Now for the Actual Games

2008-02-01T10:25:00.000-08:00

The 1st game was in Mo-Town, where the Lakers continued their extended roadtrip (due to the Grammy's). Detroit pulled out the win in a tight one (90-89), but not before Kobe dropped a triple-double, albeit not in the preferred manner (39pts, 10rebs, 11TO's). Only two other Lakers scored in double-digits (Fisher and Turiaf) as it was a one-man show for the Lakers, who came up short. Detroit got 22pts out of Tayshaun Prince and 10pt games from rookies Rodney Stuckey and Arron Afflalo.

TNT had a good one between the visiting Celtics and the Mavs. Dirk had 31pts, 11rebs, 6assts in the Mavs win (96-90). Ray Allen returned and he and Pierce both had 26pts in the loss. KG missed another game. Rajon Rondo was solid with 14pts, 12rebs.

Seattle got a win at home against the Cavs, who were hot, but were without King James in this one. The Cavs are now 0-6 this season without Lebron. Larry Hughes showed life in this one (28pts, 6rebs, 5assts, 3stls) and has been hot recently. If Lebron misses extended time, Larry could be a big benefactor, but as we've seen, Hughes is one of the streakiest players in the NBA. Durant had a rare good shooting game (10-16 for 24pts) as did fellow rookie Jeff Green (8-8 for 17pts). Chris Wilcox also had 18pts, 13rebs in a great performance.

- In easily the strangest game of the night, SA went into Phoenix, still on their "rodeo roadtrip". Phoenix had the lead the entire game until the 4th quarter when SA pulled ahead and eventually won 84-81. Both teams shot terribly, as Phoenix scored a season-low 81pts. Manu got the start again, shooting terribly (3-14), but scored all of his 19pts in the 2nd half (12-12 FT's). Duncan was solid again (16pts, 17rebs) to lead the Spurs to the win. The Suns shot 38% and the Spurs weren't much better at 38.7%.

All-Star Reserves Announced!

2008-02-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

Last night there were the usual TNT games + a couple local games as well in Detroit and Seattle, but the big news was concerning the All-Star reserves, who were announced on TNT. Here are the reserves as picked by the coaches in each conference:

West:
G: Chris Paul
G: Steve Nash
G: Brandon Roy
F: Dirk Nowitzki
F: David West
F: Carlos Boozer
C: Amare Stoudemire

East:
G: Chauncey Billups
G: Rip Hamilton
G: Joe Johnson
F: Caron Butler
F: Antawn Jamison
F: Paul Pierce
C: Chris Bosh

I'll begin by saying that I don't have much problem with any of the choices given here. Everyone on that list is having an All-Star worthy campaign, but this wouldn't be much fun unless I could give my input for some guys who are IMHO more deserving of these spots. Here are the guys I would have chosen with the reserve rules put in front of me:

My West:
G: Chris Paul
G: Steve Nash
F: Dirk Nowitzki
F: Carlos Boozer
C: Marcus Camby
11th Man: Baron Davis
12th Man: David West

My East:
G: Joe Johnson
G: Chauncey Billups
F: Caron Butler
F: Paul Pierce
C: Chris Bosh
11th Man: Jose Calderon
12th Man: Antawn Jamison

I thought the coaches did a great job picking their reserves this season, although I did have one big problem on both sides. I think that there are other guys who are very deserving as well (Manu, Tony Parker, Josh Howard, Deron Williams, Tyson Chandler out West and Ray Allen comes to mind out East), but the Brandon Roy decision out West and Rip Hamilton decision in the East were the biggest ones that I thought should not have been. I think Brandon Roy has been having a great season in just his 2nd year, but he would have been in the Rookie/Sophomore game anyways, while Baron Davis is a seasoned vet. For the coaches to snub him in arguably his best season (22ppg, 8apg, 2spg), it's ludicrous. He's having a better statistic season than Roy and his team is currently in the playoffs (1 game ahead of Portland). There's nothing else that needs to be said. He should be in the game. David West is the other decision that raised eyebrows to an extent. I love the guy's game and am surprised the coaches recognized his game as well, but I think that the fact that the game in his backyard (New Orleans) had a bit to do with it. With that said, I'm content with the 1st place Hornets getting 2 bids. Normally I'd be a bit peeved neither San Antonio nor Dallas got more than one bid, but the Spurs are struggling and the West is incredibly deep so Dallas just getting Dirk is OK i guess. Most of the coaches' choices were the right ones. Now for the east. I think Jose Calderon should easily be a reserve guard in the thin eastern conference. I understand that Detroit has the 2nd best record, but Rip has not had a ridiculous season by any means and Jose Calderon is one of the most efficient and effective pure point guard campaigns in a while. He's a quiet player that will be overlooked because he plays in Canada though. I'm fine with a lot of Eastern teams getting multiple bids though because that conference outside of the top 4-6 teams has issues. I'm also glad the coaches showed their love for the Hawks (Joe Johnson), who are having a surprising season with their young core. I also have one last notion for this AS game. Since the All-Star game doesn't stand for anything (like MLB's does) and everyone (the fans) want to see the best players, why not just pick the 24 best players instead and have them play each other? There would still be snubs, but not to this extent (a lot more snubs out West than East, I'm fairly sure few people would argue otherwise) and the most deserving players who want to entertain the fans will get that opportunity. Just a thought.

NBA Top 10 Jan. 30

2008-01-31T11:31:00.001-08:00

Last night's NBA highlights. A couple of Lebron James highlights as well to make the otherwise boring night exciting.

Last Night

2008-01-31T09:08:00.000-08:00

A few notes from around all the sports before summaries of all the NBA games.

I didn't watch the KU@K-State game, but from a look at the final score (84-75), Beasley's game and his confident words of sweeping the Jayhawks this season, this had to be the story of the night. Beasley would have to be the #1 pick overall at this point if the draft happened tonight. The kid is confident, poised and knows how to play ball. His numbers almost mirror Kevin Durant's (the 25 points and 10+ rebounds) from a season ago and they're about the same height, but their games aren't very similar at all. Durant could score from anywhere and played more perimeter O than in the post. Beasley can handle the ball as well, but his game is way stronger on the post than it is shooting treys even though he's shown that he's got the skillset to do so. He put up rather than shut up during this game too finishing with 25pts and 6rebs in the 1st of two meetings between these interstate teams. Kansas was handed its 1st loss of the season and its 1st loss at Kansas State in their last 24 visits.

I hate writing about hype in football especially the week before the Super Bowl, but a couple of hard-headed wide receivers just made dumb comments this week. I'll start with the one everyone's heard already, Plaxico Burress. Plax is a great receiver who's been blessed with enormous talent for football, but why would he start talking trash now? Antonio Pierce, who was quite vocal for the regular season game, and Michael Strahan, who loves to talk, haven't been heard from at all in terms of trashing the Pats, much less the Pats' offense. They're the ones who must stop that O and Plax is talking about the Pats scoring 17. I just want to let everyone know (if they don't already) that the Pats haven't been held under 20 once during their 18 wins this season and scored the MOST points this season in NFL history. If Plax played defense, OK I'd stop for a second and let him a little bit off the hook since he might be trying to psych himself up about playing the historic offense before him, but he's a WR... That gets me to Jerry Rice, who most people didn't see, but I saw him on "NFL Live" yesterday afternoon on ESPN. I understand the guy is the best receiver of all time, hands down, and might be the best player of all time as well, but how could he possibly pick the Giants? His 22 TD season was awesome, especially in the shortened 12 game season and it seems kind of unfair for Moss to have the "record", but a record is meant to be broken and Moss broke Rice's in the 16 games he had to get 23 TD's. Get over it Jerry and don't make yourself look like a fool on National TV. The Pats are going to win the game.

Now to the NBA games and there were quite a few of them (10 in total):

- It started in a matchup of Florida teams, Miami visiting Orlando. Miami was missing Shaq, D-Wade and Udonis Haslem, arguably their 3 best players and I fully expected them to lose and they did, 107-91. Ricky Davis had 21pts in the start at guard for Wade and if Wade keeps missing time, Davis should continue to start and produce. He's a good short-term pickup if he's even been dropped, which he should have been for a while now the way he had been playing.

- Toronto beat down on the Wizards, who were still without Caron Butler (122-83). Bargnani had a team high 19pts and is starting to be at least ownable and startable in leagues as he's had some solid games lately. I'd only upgrade his fantasy status to streaky since he's not giving you everything (only 2rebs and 3assts to go with the scoring). If Caron is to miss an extended period, Andray Blatche should be picked up in most leagues since he's got talent given the PT and he will be the chief benefactor in Butler's absence.

- The biggest blowout of the night came in Philly. Surprisingly the Sixers were the ones who won 112-69 by 43pts. I don't know how any NBA team could possibly lose to a team 10 games under .500 by 43, but the Bucks found a way. The Bucks were missing Michael Redd again, who I don't believe Milwaukee can build around. I know about his defensive struggles, but I just don't think he's a good enough player. I saw him on Team USA this summer and he thrived being a 3rd or 4th scoring option (behind guys like Carmelo Anthony, Lebron James and Kobe Bryant). He's just not a #1 guy in this league. While he's a great scorer, he isn't good on defense and he doesn't make his teammates better while he's on the court. He also looked out of shape at the beginning of this season in my humble opinion. I don't think it's because he's a headcase, I actually think Redd's one of the better guys in the league, but he doesn't have the mental toughness to be the leader of a championship caliber team (or even playoff team as we've all witnessed from this Bucks team). With that said, Royal Ivey got the start at guard and scored a team high 17pts, but the Bucks were -39pts with him in the game. The Sixers dominated this game in a total team effort with 7 players in double digits scoring and none over 20pts.

- 2 blowout games before we get to Minnesota, but this was by far the ugliest of the night. The final score was 83-67, Wolves over the Bulls, but even a score that ugly doesn't show how ridiculously bad this game was. Neither team shot close to 40% from the field. Minny shot 36.6% and Chicago shot 33.3% and only 5 total players in the game scored over 10pts. The Wolves got huge performances from their 2 bigs, Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes (26pts, 20rebs and 25pts, 10rebs, respectively). Chicago had two young bright spots with Thabo Sefolosha (14pts, 8rebs, 4blks) and Joakim Noah (10pts, 8rebs). At this point, Joakim Noah should have been picked up in deep leagues by now since Deng and Joe Smith are both still out. Noah's a rookie that does all the things Ben Wallace used to do (scrap for rebounds, block some shots, get his hands into the lane for steals and score on putbacks) and that makes him a decent start while he gets the minutes.

- Surprising game in New Orleans, where the Warriors came in and beat the Hornets, 116-103. It was surprising because NO had been so good recently (broke a 9 game winning streak in this one), but everyone knows that if the Warriors are hot, they can play with anyone. The Warriors as a team shot 52.3% and 13-27 from threes. Neither team played very badly (only 6 TO's on either side), but NO just couldn't keep up with GS in this one.

- The best game of the night thus far came in Memphis, where the Carmelo-less Nuggets visited the Gasol-less Grizzlies. Denver ended up squeezing out the win, 106-102, but not before Rudy Gay dropped 30pts and 10rebs and Darko had probably his best game of the season with 14pts, 16rebs and 5blks. With Rudy, these games aren't much of a surprise anymore, but with Darko, you gotta wait for a few of these type of performances in a row before you can decide if Darko might be producing like he was before his early season injury when he had been having his best pro campaign. Denver got 32pts and 12assts out of AI and 18pts out of Anthony Carter, who should be widely owned.

- In Utah, the Knicks tried to play tough and hang with the hot Jazz (6 straight wins and now leaders of the northwest division by 0.5gm) behind Jamal Crawford's 26pts, 9assts, but the Jazz got the win 100-89. Deron Williams is starting to look like an All-Star again (22pts, 12assts in this one), but the reserve All-Star picks come out tonight and I personally don't believe Deron will be one of them with the deep position of guards out west.

- Another ugly game was played in Portland, but at least this one was close at the end. The Lebrons went into the northwest and took the game from Brandon Roy's Trailblazers with his gamewinning drive. Lebron was the only Cav to score double digits (he did it easily too: 37pts, 14rebs) while the Cavs won 84-83. Portland got a solid all-around game from Brandon Roy (16pts, 7rebs, 8assts), but the Blazers shot only 35.3% from the field in a rare home loss (18-5 at home) and dropped to 9th in the standings.

- Sacramento is starting to look like the talented team they are. Reggie Theus played all his starters over 30mins in this one, while none of the bench players played 16 mins (John Salmons played 15mins for 8pts). All the starters score double digits with Kevin Martin (22pts) and Brad Miller (22pts, 21rebs, 3blks) leading the way for the win (105-91) over the visiting Bobcats.

- In LA, the Clippers and Hawks played in a game that I thought the Hawks should have and probably needed to win. The Clippers won the game, however, without Chris Kaman and Corey Maggette with a huge game from rookie Al Thornton (33pts and a huge block to save the game late). The Hawks are one of those teams that sneaked up on some teams early in the season and are currently sitting in the 7th playoff spot at 18-24 in the east. I personally believe this team will make the playoffs in the weak east, but they're gonna have to beat teams like the Clips, even on the road because they are not safe in any way the way they are playing right now (lost 3 straight).

Hot Stove!

2008-01-29T17:48:00.000-08:00

Big news Tuesday in baseball, pushing the basketball games to 2nd priority. The Twins have reportedly reached an agreement with the Mets to send the best pitcher in baseball, Johan Santana, to New York. There have been rumblings all offseason, basically since the Twins' season ended back in September, that Santana may be moved before the season because the Twins couldn't put up enough money to extend the 2-time Cy Young winner past this upcoming season. This trade is basically done, which means the Mets immediately become the favorites to win the NL pennant. Even more ridiculous was the fact that they kept Jose Reyes in the process. I can't really fathom how this could have happened, but it is great for Met fans to show up the Yanks and get the best pitcher in baseball all at once. This move makes the Mets not only the favorite in the NL, but a favorite in the whole thing. No doubt that soon we'll hear random articles from the east coast of another subway series... Onto basketball where there were 9 games on tonight. Here they are:

- The night started well with an OT game in Canada. Toronto hosted the Wizards, who were without Caron Butler, but still pulled out the win on Jamison's ridiculous 24pt/20reb game, making his case to be an eastern conference All-Star. Bosh and Calderon will both probably be All-Stars and were great in this game; Calderon with 23pts, 13assts and Bosh with 37pts, 12rebs. On the other side of the spectrum, Andrea Bargnani was back to his usual self, 3pts on 1-6 shooting in just under 17mins.

- Detroit won a tight one in Indy, 110-104. Troy Murphy reentered the starting lineup to matchup with Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess (both good shooters like Murphy) and had 18pts, 8rebs. Sheed was the man for Detroit tonight finishing with 24pts, 10rebs, 3blks. Kareem Rush came off the bench and had 9pts in 29mins. He's not a must keep player since he's streaky and only really contributes in scoring.

- Boston visited south beach tonight without both Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett and still won by 30. The Heat allowed 20+pts from Leon Powe, Eddie House, Rajon Rondo AND Tony Allen and Paul Pierce only played 28mins in an off night, shooting 2-9 for 7pts. This game was out of reach so early that only 2 players on either squad played over 30mins, Leon Powe (36) and Tony Allen (33).

- The low scoring, crappy eastern conference game of the night goes to Milwaukee playing in the Meadowlands. New Jersey won the game at home, but Jason Kidd's recent comments and actions have been louder than what his team has been doing, which is losing a lot of games. Kidd has recently acknowledged the desire to be traded out of his present situation in New Jersey even if it isn't to a contender. If this is to happen, which I don't doubt it will before the February trade deadline, Marcus Williams proves to be a solid add. He hasn't shown anything this season since returning from his injury, but he's got talent and as long as New Jersey's losing, they might as well evaluate his abilities. The high scorer on either side was Richard Jefferson with 20pts.

- In Chicago, Minnesota was in for their one visit of the season. The Bulls won, but the Wolves got great news on their side with the return of Randy Foye. Foye came off the bench to play his 1st minutes of the season and scored 11pts in 17mins. It'll be interesting to see how Randy Wittman mixes up his young lineup with Foye's return. I would think Foye would be inserted into the starting lineup, but Telfair has been fairly decent starting this season, Jaric's been on and off and I don't think McCants will be the guy to lose his current forward spot. More than likely, Foye will be coming off the bench for a while, until after the All-Star break probably, before he begins to start. Chicago on the other hand got another huge game out of Hinrich (27pts, 6assts) and Joakim Noah got the start and did well (10pts, 13rebs) in Joe Smith's spot. The Bulls are just getting killed with injuries right now, but they did win.

- Houston was without T-Mac again tonight as they hosted and beat the Warriors. They were without Chuck Hayes as well, as Yao Ming returned to score 36 and rebound 19 (7 TO's as well). Luis Scola got Hayes' starting spot and scored 10pts in 25mins. Rafer Alston and Luther Head filled in for McGrady again for 17pts, 8rebs, 12assts and 20pts, 6assts, respectively. Stephen Jackson was hot for GS going for 25pts (5 treys), 6rebs, 7assts.

- Atlanta went into Phoenix tonight and ran into a brick wall. Phoenix won 125-92, with only Boris Diaw playing over 30mins (31mins), who got the start at forward with Grant Hill coming off the bench. Keep an eye on this if you've got Hill or have use for a potential all-around player like Diaw. If he gets more PT and produces, he's been known to produce solid numbers.

- Next one was the polarized game of the night at least before it started, SA @ SEA. The actual didn't quite play out the way it was expected however (with SA winning, at least the way I would have predicted it). Seattle played San Antonio's slow game and stayed with them the whole way. The young Supes eventually won behind their young star, Kevin Durant's 26pts, 7rebs and 5assts despite SA's current "big two" in Duncan and Ginobili. Tony Parker missed this game and will be out for a while so Manu got a rare start in this game and might keep starting considering how he played (29pts, 7assts and 4 treys). Duncan was great too (27pts, 12rebs), but quite frankly, the Spurs just didn't get enough help. Jeff Green has been terrible since Carlesimo put him into the starting lineup. Sure, every once in a while he'll put up a game of 15pts, but the hype surrounding his entrance to the starting lineup was that he'd be averaging that number, not putting it up as a good night. The point is, after he had 0pts on 0-4 shooting in 19mins tonight, you need to drop him and use his roster spot for someone else. Pick him up later on if he shows flashes, but he's virtually useless right now.

- The last game of the night featured the biggest market on the east coast against the biggest market on the west, the Knicks visting the Lakers at Staples. The game was actually a good one, but Kobe and the Lakers eventually pulled it out, 120-109. Kobe was the high point man in this one with 24, but he also had 11assts and 8rebs, close to a triple-double. The Knicks had 6 double-digit scorers, but it wasn't enough to beat the Bynum-less Lakers. Odom added 22pts and 12rebs in a solid game.

Monday...

2008-01-28T19:30:00.000-08:00

Not much happening tonight, but four NBA games and some more news about Tom Brady's supposed injured ankle or leg or whatever the speculation is. My thought on it (I've been trying not to talk about the Super Bowl, but it is the week of now) is there's absolutely ZERO way that Tom Brady doesn't start and play the entire game if it's close. He's gonna take every single snap and do what he does to propel the Pats to another title. Anyways here's tonight's basketball games:

- Memphis hosted Dallas in a divisional matchup. The Mavs beat the Grizz bad in this one, 103-84. I actually like most of Memphis' young talent, but in a game against Dallas, they were simply outmatched. Dallas got big games from Josh Howard (26pts) and Dirk (20pts, 11rebs). They were without Devin Harris, who's going to be out until around ASB (All-Star Break). For Memphis, at least they got back Pau Gasol, who played 28mins and got 13pts. His return bumped Juan Carlos Navarro back onto the bench, who was still strong for 33mins and 16pts.

- The next game was another blowout win by a team from the southwest division. New Orleans was even more impressive than Dallas because they beat down the Nuggets, 117-93, who are a playoff team right now. The Nuggs were without Melo again, but this game wasn't even close. Chris Paul was near flawless again with a near triple-double with 23pts, 9rebs, 17assts. The only flaw that could even be pointed out in his line was his 7-20 FG shooting. Tyson Chandler put on his best Marcus Camby impression with 10pts, 16rebs, while Camby was awful. In 26mins, he only had 3pts and 5rebs on 0-5 shooting. New Orleans continues to win and impress.

- The best game of the night also featured the southwest division. The Spurs began their "rodeo roadtrip" in Utah. Utah beat the Spurs 97-91 on a night when the Spurs could only get help from a couple of guys, rather than their entire trio of stars. Manu had 29pts and TD had 26pts and 11rebs, but the two also combined for 11 TO's while the Jazz were just better. They got help from all over. Deron had 11pts and 14 dimes, Boozer had 23pts, 7rebs and 7assts and AK-47 even had 23pts, 4stls while only missing 1 shot (9-10). The Jazz were just the better team tonight as they try to climb back into the western playoffs.

- Only one eastern conference team played and that was Charlotte in LA against the Clippers. This basically ended a relatively boring night for the NBA. Charlotte still has their playoff hopes alive in the weak east, coming into LA and beating a bad Clipper team, 107-100, that was without Chris Kaman again. Josh Powell got the start in Kaman's place in this game and was solid with 12pts, 6rebs. No where near what Kaman's been putting up all season, but decent for a guy most people have never heard of. Tim Thomas had a great effort on the Clippers' side with 29pts, 13rebs and 5assts. He's a guy who's always had the talent and size, but has always too lazy. I wouldn't say go pick him up entirely since Elton Brand will be returning eventually and the Clippers will undoubtedly start to evaluate what they've got with rookie Al Thornton, who's shown flashes.

NBA Top 10 Jan. 27

2008-01-28T07:34:00.001-08:00

Last night's highlights. There were a lot of great finishes in the games including a couple of game-winners getting the top 2 spots

Last Day of the Week

2008-01-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

Early start today on ABC with the start of their afternoon Sunday games:

- The 1st was between Boston and Orlando in Florida. This game was awesome if you got to see it even without KG, who was a game-time decision with a muscle strain. It came down to the last shot in regulation, which Hedo Turkoglu hit from the top of the arc. Final score ended up being 96-93, which must have been awful for Garnett to watch. Brian Scalabrine got the start at forward for the C's because of his ability to stretch the floor, but only got 1pt in 21mins.

- Phoenix and Chicago got an early start as well in the Midwest. Phoenix only scored 88pts in this one, but it was enough to beat the lowly Bulls, who could only muster 77pts without Gordon and Deng, their 2 leading scorers. Hinrich had a big game with 31pts, but got basically no help around him. Sefolosha was solid in the starting lineup with 10pts and 2stls.

- The Next ABC game was sick as well. This one took place in LA, where Lebron visited Hollywood and Kobe Bryant. These two guys went at it the whole game and both had ridiculous nights. They even guarded each other down the stretch when Lebron just made better decisions and the Cavs came away with a big road win. Lebron finished with 41pts, 9rebs while Kobe had 33pts, 12rebs.

- The Bucks hosted Washington in the early evening in an OT finish. Washington had their own 40pt man tonight (Caron Butler), but it wasn't enough to beat the Bucks, who got help from all over. Royal Ivey had a random 17pt, 3stl, 6asst night, which I fully don't expect to happen again anytime soon, in a start for Michael Redd, who sat this one out with a knee injury. Mo Williams led the way for the Bucks with 25pts.

- Atlanta and Portland played a tight game as well, with Portland taking it down at the end, 94-93. Anthony Johnson had a surprising 12pts, 11assts and is a decent PG option in deep leagues, as he's shown signs of production this season, but he's clearly not a very consistent option. Portland got their usual all-around production with 3 bench players in double digit scoring (Travis Outlaw 15, Channing Frye 14, James Jones 10) with Brandon Roy leading all scorers with 24.

- Minnesota got another win at home bringing their season win total to 8 with a victory against the reeling Nets, now 18-26 after losing their 9th straight. Richard Jefferson did all he could with 35pts in this one, but Al Jefferson for Minnesota was unstoppable again. He got a new career high of 40pts in this one after scoring 39 just four days ago. He added 19rebs for good measure.

- The last game of the Disney triple-header was on ESPN between Dallas and Denver. Dallas pulled out the win at home, 90-85, behind a strong performance by Dirk Nowitzki (32pts, 11rebs). The Nuggets were missing All-Star Carmelo Anthony again in this game, although he should be back soon.

- In Houston, there was a battle between teams over .500 and not in the current playoff picture. The 9th seed Jazz and 10th seed Rockets played in a rematch of last playoffs' 4/5 matchup. Utah got a great team win in this one, 97-89, with no player scoring over 20pts. Houston was without Yao Ming in the middle, with Luis Scola getting the start. Scola's shown that given minutes, he's a legit scoring option and that he understands how to play the game. Keep an eye on Yao's injury and Scola's PT. Scola had 18pts in almost 40mins in this one. T-Mac reentered the starting lineup and had 21pts, 9assts in 39mins.

- In the northwest, Sacramento visited Seattle with Reggie Theus still trying to figure out a good rotation for his relatively deep team. Sacto pulled out the win in the end, 103-101, behind Kevin Martin's 26pts. Kurt Thomas had 15pts, 10rebs in his best effort to keep the young Supes in it, but it wasn't enough.

- In Golden State was the last game of the night. I was watching this box score intently as I had a rare shot at a 11-0 week in my main league (Baron Davis was in this game). I came into these last two games (Seattle and Golden State) down 3 three pointers with John Salmons and Baron Davis still to play. With that said, GS pulled out this game against the Knicks in the 4th, 106-104. Baron ended with 22pts and 9assts, but only 2-8 from 3, leaving me to lose by just one three pointer. I had a 10-1 week, which by most standards is great and will keep me in 2nd place by a comfortable margin, but 11-0 happens maybe once a season in every league that goes 11 cats H2H so I'm a little disappointed. Anyways, Andris Biedrins was crazy this game and grabbed 26 boards, which easily could have swayed some matchups in leagues as well.

The Four Games of Saturday

2008-01-27T08:12:00.000-08:00

Lots of games on the schedule tonight, but there were only 4 last night, and here they are:

IND @ MIA: Miami finally won another game, snapping their 15 game losing streak, barely edging out the Pacers, 98-96. The Heat were again without the services of Shaq, with Mark Blount starting in his spot (19pts). D-Wade led the way with a very efficient night, especially by his standards with 35pts, 8rebs on 12-20 shooting and only 3 TO’s. Troy Murphy reentered the starting lineup for the Pacers in this one and played decently in 30mins, while Jeff Foster only played 17. Murphy had 9pts and 10rebs and if he’s starting, he can produce some points, rebounds and occasionally threes, so he’s more than productive when he’s got the time, but Jim O’Brien doesn’t seem to have a great rotation with this team, so outside of Danny Granger and Mike Dunleavy, no one else is very trustworthy to keep on your roster. Jermaine O’Neal and Jamaal Tinsley have shown they are injury-prone, so if you’ve got them, I would try to get rid of them in trades or even drops in shallow leagues.

PHI @ CHA: Philly won this game in Charlotte 103-96, but the Cats were missing starting PG, Raymond Felton, who might be out for a few games with his ankle injury. I've hinted at the youth movement in Philly and last night might have signified the beginning with Thaddeus Young starting in place of Reggie Evans (Evans still play more minutes however (23 to Young's 18).

LAC @ MEM: This was the lone OT game of the night, with Memphis pulling it out at home 125-120. Lots of changes for Mike Dunleavy's Clippers squad with the absence of Chris Kaman to injury and the reinsertion of Cuttino Mobley into the starting rotation. Mobley was probably back into the starting lineup because the Clips are awful on O and having a "defensive stopper" like Quinton Ross in there doesn't help things. Mobley had 15pts, 6assts in 37mins. Kaman was replaced by Aaron Williams (I didn't even know he was still in the league), who only played 7mins in an OT game. Memphis started Kyle Lowry and Juan Carlos Navarro at the guards with Mike Conley and Pau Gasol out with injuries. I would suggest picking up Lowry since he's a great fantasy option given the minutes (better than Conley at this stage of their careers), but it sounds like Conley is due back soon. Navarro has been a good source of points and threes all season, although he will give you better, more consistent numbers while in the starting rotation. Neither Navarro nor Lowry are great long term options, but they could be decent for the next week or so. Lowry had 21pts, 8rebs and Navarro had 18pts with 3 threes. Top guys on each side were Rudy Gay (34pts, 12rebs, 4 treys) and Corey Maggette (35pts, 9rebs, 16-18 FT's and 3 treys).

- NOH @ SAS: This was easily the most surprising game that should have, by most standards, been the best game of the night. New Orleans went into San Antonio and killed the Spurs, 102-78, to show why they belong in the conversation as one of the best teams in the league. No one on either side had astounding games, although David West had 32pts and 7rebs on 15-19 shooting and I'd like to mention Ime Udoka, who is one of the better role players in the league. He's being overlooked right now because he's on the Spurs' bench and his main role is to play defense. The Spurs believe he's their next Bruce Bowen and I trust the Spurs' evaluation of talent more than most other teams. He had 13pts, 7rebs in 24mins off the bench behind Manu Ginobili in this game. This could just be one of those games for the Spurs, or it could be a sign that the Hornets are that good and the Spurs beginning to decline with age.

NBA Top 10 Jan. 25

2008-01-26T11:12:00.001-08:00

On big NBA nights, such as last night, I will begin to post a "Top Ten Plays" video from that night, courtesy of YouTube and NBATV. Enjoy!

Last Night...

2008-01-26T09:28:00.001-08:00

Unfortunately now that I'm back on campus, many of my updates may not be until the next morning. Please bear with me, but I am now back in the Midwest central time zone (Wisconsin), whereas I was in the Pacific (California) when I began these daily entries on Winter recess. This has only been my second one, but I am just putting this out there for those of you check at the late stages of the night. Without further ado, here are last night's news and notes:

- The night's games began on ESPN between the Magic and the Pistons in Auburn Hills, MI, where DET won 101-93. Carlos Arroyo got the start with Jameer Nelson out of this game. He was solid (16pts, 6assts), but that's expected out of Carlos. Earlier this season, he was a very solid option given the starts and minutes while Nelson was out as well. Keep an eye on Nelson's status as Arroyo makes a fine short term pickup if Nelson is due out for an extended period. Also on the Magic side would be my eye on the Evans/Bogans PT situation, Bogans got the better end in this one off the bench with 10pts in 24mins to Evans' 2pts in 20mins. Detroit won this game in Detroit style, getting help from a lot of sources with Rip having the big game at 32pts, 8rebs, 8assts on 14-22 shooting in a great performance.

- Memphis visited the Wizards in D.C., where Washington continued to show they are a very good team even without Gilbert Arenas, who, many of you have probably heard, may be returning post-ASB (All-Star Break). Gasol was missing in this Memphis loss. He had been doing much better in the rebounding and blocks departments before this injury (double figure rebounding in 6 of the last 7 games and averaging 1.8bpg in the last 10). Gasol may be back for their next game, but I would put it as doubtful more than questionable for the injury he has (sore back). Kyle Lowry had a rare good game in this one (13pts, 10assts), but he's not getting any sort of consistent PT with Conley getting all the opportunities and starts.

- Phoenix visited Lebron and the Cavs in a great 110-108 win for the Suns. Ira Newble got the start in place of Sasha Pavlovic on the Cavs' side, while Daniel Gibson continues to come off the bench. I suppose Mike Brown believes Gibson is best served on that team as an instant offense option off the bench, like a Ginobili, Barbosa or Ben Gordon. Anyways, Pavlovic is due out for a while, but I wouldn't advise picking up Newble. He's gonna get the starts, but as seen probably not the minutes and even if he did get the extended PT, he's one of those guys who won't help you in the fantasy fields.

- In the biggest blowout of the night, Toronto demolished the Bucks 106-75 in Canada. On the Bucks side, no one played over 30 minutes and no one was effective in their PT either. With the Raptors, they are beginning to shine more and more like the surprise team everyone saw last season led by Chris Bosh, who had 32pts in this one. Bargnani has now put up double figures scoring in his last couple of games (16.5ppg) after not scoring 10+ in the previous 8. Also, I'm convinced that in the guard-thin East, Jose Calderon should be an All-Star. He's been nothing short of spectacular with his starts in the absence of TJ Ford. Sam Mitchell has already hinted that once TJ returns, which he will, Calderon will remain the starter, which is deserved. Calderon is one of the best PURE PG's in the NBA, which is a dying breed. He doesn't score like Chris Paul because his team doesn't need him too (and it's difficult putting anyone in the same breath as Chris Paul right now), but he's arguably the most efficient guard in the league. He's got a 5.37 Asst:TO ratio (8.6apg, 1.6tpg), which is completely ridiculous, shoots 51% from the field, 43% from three and 92% from the line. Simply put, the guy just doesn't make mistakes. He also leads the Raps in steals, albeit at only 1.1spg. He had 11pts, 12assts and 2stls in this contest, which doesn't astound anyone, but it just shows how consistent a player he is as well.

- Boston got another tough game last night, as they seem to get every night now. This time it was against the streaking Minnesota Timberwolves, who own 2 straight for the 1st time this season before this contest. The final score was 87-86, as the C's won on Kendrick Perkins' tip in down the stretch. I believe the Wolves may have something figured out. They've got a decent nucleus of young talent and when Foye gets back into the rotation, I'm not sure if Telfair at PG is the position he will take over in the starting lineup. Telfair is actually playing pretty decently, putting in about 10ppg and 6apg night in and night out. He led the Wolves in scoring in this one with 18 and dished out 6. Minny led for most of the game, but couldn't close out the Wolves, which they will learn in time. Boston got another great game out of KP, who had 21pts including the gamewinner. He's been a decent source for defensive cats (Rebounding and Blocks) this season and if he puts in a few more good scoring outputs, he's a good option for spot starts in your leagues. There's no reason to expect consistency out of the young fella though.

- New York and Philadelphia, two great basketball cities and two horrid NBA franchises. These two clashed in MSG last night, with the Knicks coming out on top. I don't have much to say about this game except that the final score was 89-81. Isiah Thomas does seem to be finding some sort of balance between his bench and starters though. David Lee and Nate Robinson had 14pts and 13pts in 26mins and 27mins, respectively. New York was playing Philly, however, who needless to say have their own issues.

- LAC@NO, this was just a bad game. Chris Paul got wherever he wanted, dishing out 14 assists in this one, although only shooting 3-12 for 8pts. Peja had a big scoring output with 26pts, including 6-9 from three. The bench was great again for NO, who got 14 out of Pargo and 12 from Rasual Butler (4-5 from three), who might have found himself back into the rotation after this one.

- Kobe had 40pts, 10rebs in Dallas last night and the Lakers shot 56% from the field in this one, but the Mavs weren't going to lose this game. Dirk and Josh Howard both had 26pts/10rebs nights. The game was a good one, but the refereeing was questionable with the two teams combining for 76 FTs attempted (Kobe was 17-21 and Dirk/Josh combined for 18-21). Farmar had a big game off the bench for the Lakers with 18pts and he's been good recently scoring in double figures 6 out of his last 7 games. He's a valid pickup in deep leagues and an trustworthy option for spot starts.

- Charlotte beat the Bulls at the UC in dowtown Chicago on the back of Emeka Okafor (21pts, 16rebs, 4blks). For Chicago, they got the services of Chris Duhon back, who wasn't much of a fantasy factor before, but with the emergence of Thabo Sefolosha (13pts, 10rebs last night), he might have lost his spot in the rotation, playing only 12mins in his return. Andres Nocioni played well again with 25pts and while Ben Gordon and Luol Deng are out, he is probably the best option fantasy-wise on this Bulls team.

- In Utah, there was a shootout between two of the badder defensive teams, but better offensive teams. The score was 127-113, Utah, and there was no shortage of production. The main guys were all there. Kevin Martin led the way for the Kings with 32pts, 7rebs. Utah had a great nights from Boozer (33pts, 10rebs), AK-47 (25pts, 6rebs, 6assts, 4blks) and Deron Williams (16pts, 14assts). Something to note on the Kings' side was the start of John Salmons at forward in place of Mikki Moore. This should give the Kings more offensive firepower, although they already have a ton. It's hard to say how Salmons will fare with Bibby, Artest, Martin and sometimes even Brad Miller as the options ahead of him, but it does guarantee that Salmons will have more consistent PT. Pick him up at your discretion, but I will tell you that I already have in one of my leagues. He had 13pts in 37mins last night.

- Jason Kidd had another triple-double (13pts, 11rebs, 10assts and also 2stls, 2blks) as the Nets lost in Mile-High. Denver was missing Carmelo Anthony again, but pulled out the win. Kenyon Martin (20pts, 7rebs) and Linas Kleiza (23pts, 11rebs) filled in nicely, while AI was AI with 30pts. Josh Boone has also been more than solid lately (13pts, 14rebs in 33mins), while Sean Williams (14mins, 2pts, 4rebs on 1-7 shooting) has struggled. It seems the factor in Williams' production and PT has not been foul trouble lately, but instead the return of Antoine Wright in the rotation (27mins, 13pts). If this is to be the case, then Sean Williams is droppable because Nenad Krstic is close to returning to the lineup. This will create even more difficulties for Williams to keep consistent PT in the rotation. My personal move on this is to wait another game or two and observe Sean Williams' numbers and PT in the those games and if the minutes continue the way they currently are, then I will drop him for a different piece.

- Houston has been on a roll lately winning 4 straight and 8 of their last 10, including this one at the Rose Garden in Portland. As I've mentioned before, T-Mac is back, although Adelman continues to bring him in off the bench, which has worked well so far, considering he's still getting starter minutes (35 in this one for 15pts). As expected, Rafer Alston (20mins, 9pts) and Luther Head (4pts, 17mins), as well as other guard options for the Rockets are now relatively useless for fantasy with the return of McGrady. No one was spectacular for the Rockets as they got the ugly win (40% shooting, 20 TO's). For Portland, Brandon Roy led the way with 23pts, but no one else really contributed. As a team, the Blazers shot 35.7% from the field and commited 16 TO's. This was a Rockets game of the past years when Jeff Van Gundy had been the coach.

- The last game of the night was between Atlanta and Seattle in the great northwest. In past seasons, this game would have been meaningless at this stage of the season, but this year Atlanta currently holds the 7th seed in the East at 18-21 and they are the franchise that has been without a playoff berth for the longest current consecutive number of seasons. The Hawks had a decent lead for most the game and eventually won with a huge game out of Marvin Williams (33pts, 7rebs, 3stls), the former 2nd pick, who has been one of the most consistent players in the league this season (double figures in EVERY Hawks game he's played this season, but one in late November). On the Supes' side, Chris Wilcox reentered the starting rotation and had 18pts, 7rebs on 7-9 shooting in 31mins. Rookies Kevin Durant and Jeff Green continue to struggle from the field. Durant had 17pts, but shot only 7-21 from the field as he continues to be one of the worst players in the league effecting FG% in fantasy. Jeff Green played 19mins in this game to score a total of 1pt on 0-3 from the field.

QuickGM

2008-01-25T15:45:00.000-08:00

I'm making this about a cool forum that I've been a part of this NBA season that is quite a bit different from fantasy. It's called QuickGM and it's a nice simulation of you, the fan being able to manage NBA players, making trades and the such to create the best team under the salary cap. Your team will be judged by your peer GM's at the end of the trading deadline in the form of a Tournament, of which each matchup is voted by other players in the league, round by round. The next season (season 6) will begin within the next week as season five's tournament is just ending. Please join only if you plan to be competitive and play accordingly within the rules. There's nothing at stake except your pride and ability to try and assemble the best possible combination of players to win the title!

Tonight's Games

2008-01-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

Only three games were on tonight in what I like to call the "TNT night".

- Milwaukee beat the Pacers at home tonight in a battle of bad teams. There's not really a better way of putting it. Both of these teams are talented in some aspects, but just aren't good enough to win even in the East. Jamaal Tinsley missed this game and Travis Diener actually had a solid game with the start in his absence (15pts, 9assts). Starters keep getting injured for Indy, yet it seems Troy Murphy gets no closer to starting again. He seems to be stuck on the bench for the foreseeable future. Michael Redd led the Bucks to the win with 37pts in this one, while Mo Williams struggled in his return (9pts, 9assts) after missing a game with a pinky injury.

- The first TNT game was a battle of the last two NBA Champs, who are now at opposite ends of the spectrum right now, SA@MIA. Miami was actually close in this one to pull off an upset of the defending champs at home, but they eventually lost their 15th straight despite D-Wade's 27pts, 9assts, 4stls and Mark Blount's 23pts. San Antonio got another huge game out of Tim Duncan, who had 30pts and 11rebs on 14-19 shooting.

- The next game was another great one at Oracle Arena in Oakland between the Nets and Warriors. Al Harrington hit 4 threes to help GS go up double digits in the fourth, but as the Warriors tend to do, they allowed the Nets to catch back up and eventually only won by 2, 121-119. The Nets got some big performances from Josh Boone and their "Big 3". Boone had 21pts and 17rebs (a career high), most of the points coming towards the end of the third when Don Nelson went with bad strategy, admittedly, in the "hack-a-Boone" (Boone was 7-15 overall from the line and 34% shooting coming into the game). RJ added 34pts and VC 29pts. Golden State got some crazy performances. I already hinted toward Al Harrington, who was 0-4 before the 4th and hit 4 straight 3's at one point, finishing with 19pts. Baron had a triple-double (25pts, 12rebs, 10assts while adding 5stls for good measure), doing his best impression of his idol and Bay Area native, Jason Kidd. And then there's Monta Ellis who scored a career high 39 in this one. It was a classic GS game and was exciting throughout, both teams putting on great runs at one point or another

The Annoucement of the 2008 All-Star Starters

2008-01-24T18:14:00.002-08:00

Although most of the All-Stars aren't really much of a surprise, as the NBA has been putting out periodic updates as to how the voting has been progressing, it's still a fun night for the TNT crew to analyze the starters of this year's game in New Orleans (I get to assess the picks as well). Here are the actual starters, for those of you who don't know yet:

West:
G1: Kobe Bryant (LAL)
G2: Allen Iverson (PHI)
F1: Tim Duncan (SAS)
F2: Carmelo Anthony (DEN)
C: Yao Ming (HOU)

East:
G1: Dwyane Wade (MIA)
G2: Jason Kidd (NJN)
F1:Kevin Garnett (BOS)
F2: Lebron James (CLE)
C: Dwight Howard (ORL)

Out of this group, Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony are the two first time starters, with Kevin Garnett and Allen Iverson being 1st time starters on the East and West, respectively. These picks are hard to argue with for the most part, but you can definitely argue against some of them. Here are who my starters would have been (based on their season up until now and team standing):

My West:
G: Kobe Bryant
G: Chris Paul
F: Tim Duncan
F: Dirk Nowitzki
C: Marcus Camby

My East:
G: Joe Johnson
G: Chauncey Billups
F: Lebron James
F: Kevin Garnett
C: Dwight Howard

As you can see, there are 3 changes on the West (all involving Denver Nuggets) and 2 on the East. I'm not trying to take away anything from the current starters, as they have all been good enough to merit starting positions. The guys I've replaced them with, however; have had better seasons up until this point. Here's the reasoning:

Chris Paul over Allen Iverson: This had to be the easiest one, even though the West is unbelievably deep at guard. Chris Paul IS the MVP at this point of the season. I shouldn't have to explain this, but I will. He's the leader on the team with the best record in the West, even though they are also in the best division in the NBA (southwest: SAS, DAL, NOH, MEM, HOU). There isn't a better division, don't bother trying to argue. He is also having a statistical season that the NBA might never have seen before. His averages of 20+ppg, 10+apg and close to 3spg have never been done. He also only turns the ball over 3 times a game, which is ridiculous as a point guard who touches the ball every single time down the court, which makes him good for the best efficiency ratio in the NBA as well. Don't bother asking me, I have no idea how they figure that out mathematically, but I do know that the higher it is, the better and he's the BEST.

Dirk over Melo: This one is a bit painful, but there's no doubt in my mind Dirk should be the other starting forward in the All-Star game. He's THE #1 option on his team, which Melo is arguably the #1 at this point. Dirk's stats are a bit down this season from normal, but for Dirk, those numbers are still ridiculous. His team is also ahead of Anthony's by 3 games as well, which might mean his team is better, but I don't think anyone will argue that the Nuggets have a lot of talent.

Camby over Yao: I am Chinese. Just getting that out there even though I might get more hate for this pick. Honestly though, Camby's having one of the best defensive years for a center in a long time. His presence allows the Nuggets to play the way they do, which involves a lot of gambling on defense. The fans got Denver completely wrong. They picked two All-Star starters from the Nuggets and neither was arguably their MVP, which IMHO is Marcus Camby. Without him, I don't believe they are leading the Northwest division right now (0.5 gm ahead of POR). Yao is leading his team right now both ends, but in the deep West, the Rockets at 23-19, are not in the playoff picture.

Joe Johnson and Chauncey Billups over Dwyane Wade and Jason Kidd: I lumped this one together since the AS voting does not differentiate SG and PG. Chauncey Billups has to be starting in the East, which is so thin at guard this season, for whatever reason. Detroit is in second place and beat the Celtics at home, when they were hot at home. The Pistons are still arguably the best team in the East, if not the league and Chauncey is their statistical leader and takes most of the big shots when they need them. Jason Kidd would then be the 1st guard I take out of the starting rotation. I love Kidd's game and his leadership on the Nets, but if they aren't in the playoffs at this point in the season, he can't be starting with his inefficiencies from the field. Even though he's putting in 11.4-10.5-8.3, shooting 37% on a bad team kills the argument. D-Wade and Joe Johnson provides a very difficult decision for me. Joe is a bad percentage shooter as well (41%) and his statistical season is actually worse this season as compared to last season, BUT here's why he's starting over Wade. Wade's playing on a team that has lost 14 straight this season. He's putting up great numbers, but his numbers are down across the board from last season as well, on a team that needs him to do more. He's also missed 8 games, which isn't that many, but they can't win with him IN or OUT of the lineup. If you thought the only reason I picked Joe was because of Wade's team's struggles, it's not true. Joe is THE guy on a Hawks team that is the 6th seed right now in the East. He's the main option on offense and he's the guy who makes plays happen for his teammates (21.9ppg and 5.4apg, both lead the team). He also plays the 2nd most minutes per game (41.1 to AI's 41.7) in the NBA, having not missed any games this season. Dwyane Wade is the flashier pick, but Joe Johnson is the rightful guy.

Like I've said before, I don't think any of the decisions that were actually made were undeserved, just that some of the picks may have been for players that were less deserving that others. I will admit I saw Marc Stein's similar column in "The Daily Dime" on ESPN before I wrote this, but I thought he did it too soon, before the results even came out. Many of these picks are similar, but they are my own. I would not start a blog to copy other writers' ideas. I will probably write and similar entry once the bench players are released as well in a couple of weeks.

Rudy Gay's Slam Dunk Promotion

2008-01-24T18:14:00.001-08:00

This is Rudy Gay's dunk contest promo. It's actually a really cool way for him to put himself out there and get the fans involved. He's one of 4 contestants who will be participating in the '08 All-Star dunk contest during All-Star weekend, which will take place the weekend of February 15th. The four contestants in the AS dunk contest will be returning champ Gerald Green (MIN), Dwight Howard (ORL), who competed last season, Jarmario Moon (TOR), a relatively unknown rookie who's been a professional basketball journeyman and Rudy Gay (MEM), shown in this video. The AS starters were also announced tonight on TNT. However, this is about Rudy Gay, who is putting himself out there for the fans and trying to make the dunk contest special again.

Yesterday

2008-01-24T12:13:00.000-08:00

A LOT of stuff happened last night to be aware of, but I was a bit busy to make those updates. I apologize for that and will make some of those points now:

- Cleveland murdered the Wizards last night in the 3rd quarter, scoring 43 pts while holding the Wiz to just 17. Because of this, most of the regulars in this game got limited playing time due to the score late in the game. With that said, keep all you Cavs and Wizards in your lineups and watch their next contests.

- Detroit won in Philly in normal Detroit fashion (86-78). I wouldn't even mention this game, but I wanted to call attention to two areas, Tayshaun Prince and the Philly youngsters. Prince deserves attention because he's been unbelievably streaky and, in a word, bad this season. His averages are 13ppg, 4.7rpg and 3apg on 44% shooting. Those don't seem that bad, but he's a guy who should also give you a 3 and close to a block and steal every night. He averaging a total of 1.5pg in those 3 categories. He's a guy who won't hurt you for having him, but he's having a bad fantasy season. He's a guy who always seems to get some hype for potentially breaking out on a team with aging stars and as a guy who's got all the skills in the world, but he's always been around 15-5-3. He's still pretty close to those numbers right now, but he's usually very consistent and solid. This year he's been very streaky with production and seems to be declining while he should be a rising star. My take on him is that if you're in a H2H league that's not very deep, he's worth a drop for hot players. For Philly, they've got 4 huge talents coming off the bench right now. I've mentioned Thaddeus Young and Louis Williams a few times. At this point, Louis Williams isn't a secret in the fantasy world anymore. Thaddeus Young, Jason Smith and Rodney Carney are relative unknowns however. Young and Carney are both great athletes who will get playing time before the end of this season. Carney's a 2nd year guy, who needs to get evaluated and Young has already shown flashes. Smith is good player as well, who will get the starting job sooner than later from what I've seen. He's going to get Reggie Evans' starting spot before the end of the season and it won't be because of injury. He's a legit big, who could succeed in the league. These 4 guys got the 6th-9th spots in the rotation in the game last night and they need to be watched because a pickup of one of them will be a factor in one of your leagues late in the season. It happens every season and this season is no exception.

- Not much on Dallas/Charlotte since it was a pretty quiet game (102-95 Dallas)

- Toronto won in Boston. That's huge in its own right, but for them to get 20-7-7 from Bargnani was even bigger. Calderon was the hero who hit the game-winning "and 1" bank shot. Eddie House missed his tie attempt and so did Ray Allen off the offensive rebound. The Celtics are showing that the players on their team are human. They're having some struggles, but with the All-Star break approaching, I believe they will be more than fine. People who expected 70 wins might be slightly disappointed, but that was a ridiculous expectation for a team that's not even that deep.

- Orlando killed the Grizzlies in Tennessee, 112-85. Mo Evans got the better of the the time-share with Keith Bogans last night, but he still wasn't worth keeping on my team, as I dropped him for Thabo Sefolosha, who keeps starting and producing (more on him later).

- The shocker of the night was in Minnesota, where Phoenix lost not only the game, but also sole possession of 1st place in the west. Al Jefferson had a career high 39pts and added 15rebs for support. Needless to say, he was unstoppable last night. Corey Brewer showed some life off the bench with 13pts on 6-11 shooting in 30mins. The loss last night created a tie with New Orleans after they won against Portland.

- Speaking of which, the final score was 96-81. In a battle of two young teams, the better (IMHO) won. Chris Paul is showing the world why he is THE MVP of the NBA. He's got his team percentage points ahead of Phoenix as the best team in the deeper, better western conference. Jannero Pargo was the lift off the bench in this game with a season high and game high of 24pts. This Hornets team is showing that they're legit, just by keeping on winning, while other supposed "better" teams are struggling. No one on Portland could get a rhythm with the whole team shooting under 40% for the game.

- Chicago got a win without the services of Luol Deng and Ben Gordon, both out with various injuries. Deng could be out for a few weeks so monitor that situation closely as I will for the next few days for updates. As I mentioned before, Thabo Sefolosha should be getting picked up in most leagues now, after his production since being inserted in the starting rotation. He can help with points, steals and somewhat in rebounding, which is more than solid from a guy off the waiver wire. Nocioni and Thabo are the subjects of rumors as of right now, but these can't really be taken too seriously since Noc has always been at the center of rumors with his value. IMHO, it would be a dumb trade for the Bulls since they're not getting the big man they need out of the trade.

- In the Atlanta @ Denver game, the final score didn't matter too much to me, but the ridiculous fantasy line that Josh Smith put up did. He had his 1st career triple-double and it was in Josh Smith fashion. He had 22pts, 12rebs, 10assts, 5blks, 3stls and bad shooting (8-23). That's a ridiculous line. Carmelo also missed this game due to his hig ankle sprain and it's not yet certain how much time he will miss, but that's another situation that needs to be closely monitored. Oh yeah, Marcus Camby had 21rebs and 4blks.

- LA probably should have beaten SA last night, even in San Antonio. They were up 9 at halftime, but fell apart in the 3rd quarter. Kobe had a big night with 29pts, 12rebs, but his night was no match for Duncan, who had a classic performance with 28pts, 17rebs and 3blks.

- Houston pulled out a tight one in Seattle after they were down by 10 in the 4th quarter. McGrady came off the bench again and was fantastic. He played 34mins and had 28pts, including big plays down the stretch. For Seattle, they played well, but couldn't hold on. Chris Wilcox only played 15mins and scored 4pts, still apparently not 100%. This is a great opportunity for owners to try and trade Nick Collison at high value. Wilcox will return to the starting rotation soon, but for owners with Collison right now, they can try and trade him to a less knowledgeable owner, not understanding the situation in Seattle.

- One game after Sacramento seemed to be clicking on all cylinders, they lose to the lowly Clippers. They allowed the Clips to shoot 57%, which I believe could be a season high. Chris Kaman had a 20pt-21reb game in this one and shot 9-13 from the field. If you were to trade Kaman at any point of this season, it'd be NOW or right before the All-Star break. There are many people who are skeptical of Kaman's performance thus far this season, like myself, but there are also people who believe his game is legitimate and he's a great value center. My feeling is that he's got some motivation to be doing what he's doing, but he can't keep it up. He's never proven he's a player of this caliber and once their All-Star, Elton Brand, returns, Kaman has even less chance to keep this up. If you need other categories and are good for rebounds, you TRADE Chris Kaman. John Salmons was apparently injured in the Kings' last contest and returned to play 22mins in this one. He only had 8pts on 3-8 shooting so if you did drop him, you didn't miss much.

1st Day of Classes

2008-01-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

Stupid title, but I thought everyone should know that after my month-long winter recess. I'll start off by letting everyone know about Damon Stoudamire, who is meeting with Grizzly officials very soon to negociate his buyout, which is definitely going to happen. Rajon Rondo owners should be most attentive to this because I do believe the sources that say the C's are Damon's #1 choice and he will probably sign with them for the vet's minimum. With that said, there were only 2 games on this Tuesday after MLK day.

- Grant Hill returned today after missing time with his appendectomy surgery in a win (114-105) for the Suns at the Bradley Center. Milwaukee hung around in this game, but the Suns were just too much. He had 8pts in 28mins as Boris Diaw returned to the bench to play 24mins and score 5, dish 5 and rebound 5. It's time to get Hill back into those rosters and drop Diaw. On the Buck side, Bobby Simmons returned to the starting rotation for 35mins and 15pts. Like I've said before, he's a decent option, but he is injury-prone and doesn't help you that much in any area so if you need a guy bad, he's a good spot start every once in a while.

- Jersey visited the Kings in the 2nd game. Big News in this one as Kevin Martin, Mike Bibby and Ron Artest all started in place of Francisco Garcia, Beno Udrih and John Salmons. It's tough to say how these guys will be affected fantasy-wise, but I would only keep Udrih until the trade deadline out of these 3. The Kings have been trying to move Bibby for a while and Udrih would get most of his numbers back if that happens to be the case. The Kings dominated this game too, winning each quarter and eventually by 34, 128-94. Udrih and Garcia were both effective off the bench with 14pts and 13pts, respectively. Salmons only played 2mins so it's probably time to drop him or if you choose to wait, the All-Star break should be your decision point. The Kings are a talented team and I fully expect them to use this lineup until a major move is made, considering how effective it was tonight.

Big Monday

2008-01-21T18:10:00.001-08:00

Huge night of games tonight, 13 in total so this might not be the most specific entry...

- Started off in Charlotte, where the Cats played the Spurs well (lost 95-86 however). Surprising start on the SA end with Jeremy Richardson at center (only played 11 minutes and hit one 3). SA won in SA fashion.

- Washington sweeps the season series against Dallas at home today (102-84). Josh Howard had 32 points, while Caron Butler had 25pts, 9rebs, 5assts and 5stls.

- Boston killed New York in MSG 109-93 in an NBA version of the Super Bowl, except the Knicks are far from making any sort of championships. Rondo returned in this game for 14pts, 4stls.

- Portland beat Atlanta in the south in OT. Travis Outlaw is "Mr. Clutch" for the Blazers, scoring a team high 23pts and playing more minutes than 4 starters (with the exception of Roy). Joe Johnson did all he could with 37pts, 7assts, 4 treys and no TOs. Anthony Johnson missed this game and Acie Law started in his place, although Tyronn Lue outplayed Law and played more minutes (18pts to 7pts and 24mins to 19 mins).

- Indy won in Philly 110-103. Jermaine O'Neal is still out and Kareem Rush started in his spot, scoring 25 pts. He's only useful for scoring so pick him up if you need points. Otherwise, he's relatively useless.

- T-Mac came off the bench to play 29mins and score 16pts, as Houston won at home against the lowly Sonics. Yao had 30pts, 17rebs. Bonzi Wells got the start at SG and scored 16pts as well. Jeff Green had 15pts on 7-17 shooting as I dropped him for a spot start tomorrow for Yi Jianlian (4pts, 6rebs tonight...).

- Bringing us to the beatdown of Milwaukee at the hands of New Orleans. Tyson Chandler was the story with 20pts, 15rebs for the Hornets to win 106-92. The Bucks got 13pts, 15rebs from Bogut. Royal Ivey started at forward to play 16mins, scoring 5pts, as Bobby Simmons came off the bench for 8pts in 23mins.

- Utah pounded the Clips at Staples, with 7 Jazz in double figures, but none over 20pts in a balanced effort. The Clips are just not very good.

- Minnesota got a rare win in Oakland, as they beat the Warriors 109-108. Gomes had 35pts, 11rebs to lead the way. Monta Ellis scored 28, but it wasn't enough as the captains Stephen Jackson and Baron combined for 10-27 from the field for 33pts.

- Memphis won in a showdown of bad teams at home 104-90 against the Bulls. Mike Miller and Rudy Gay both had 24pts and 10rebs to lead the way for the Grizz. The Bulls got Luol Deng back, who started and scored 13pts in 26mins. Thabo and Kirk started at the guards and should continue to start since Chris Duhon was inactive in this one. Thabo is a good option at guard if he continues to start. He's got good length and athletic ability, making him a good all-around fantasy contributor in steals, rebounds and points (may be a little erratic).

- Orlando took down Detroit at home, as the Magic needed a solid win with their recent struggles. The Pistons played a great team game with 6 players in double figures, but the Magic had Hedo Turkoglu down the stretch who had 26pts, 8assts total in the contest. Mo Evans got the start, but was outplayed 2:1 by Bogans, in terms of PT. Evans played 16mins, Bogans 33.

- Cleveland brought their mini-win streak (3 W's) into Miami, who had lost 13 straight. They extended their own win streak to 4, while creating more questions in Miami. The Heat, two seasons removed from a title, have not lost 14 straight. That's ridiculous. This team needs to do something, but it really can't with Shaq on the books for another 2 seasons and $40+ million and D-Wade's huge contract. On the Cavs' side, Lebron was a beast again (28pts, 5 dimes and 4stls) and Anderson Varejao (4pts, 10rebs, 2blks) continues to play more minutes than both starters Big Z and Drew Gooden (33 to 30 and 26, respectively). He should not be available in any leagues considering the center eligibility factor.

- The final game was the second of a doubleheader at the Staples Center in LA, where Denver was the second visiting team. LA held the lead for most of the game and eventually beat the Nuggets handily, 116-99. Carmelo Anthony left the game in the 2nd quarter with a sprained ankle and didn't return, but it was reported the MRI came back negative. Wait for further news before panicking about this injury. He sounds like he will be day-to-day. Kenyon Martin returned in this game and played well (16pts, 11rebs, 8-11 FG's), while Linas Kleiza came off the bench again and was very productive (20pts, 4 treys). The Lakers was a complete team effort with Kobe leading the way even if he only took 7 shots, making 5, and scored 17pts. He led the Lakers to this victory as well as any other player in the league and had a season high 11assts. He's putting his name into the conversation for MVP for sure if the Lakers continue to win without the services of Andrew Bynum, who's out for another 7 weeks.

BACK! With News and Notes From the Playoffs and Lone NBA Game

2008-01-20T10:52:00.001-08:00

The NFL has got to give itself some wiggle room for playoff times. I mean, why does it have to alternate year-to-year which Conference title game comes first and second? I understand that the ratings are going to be through the roof either way, but isn't the point to make as much money as possible without hindering the game-play and allowing the audience to enjoy the game to a maximum? If so, then the Packers/Giants should be playing in the 3:00 pm Eastern Time slot and the Pats/Chargers should be in the primetime (6:30 pm eastern) slot. Who thinks that the Packers and Giants playing in sub-zero temperatures is going to be fun for the players and fans? Honestly, these fans are paying ridiculous amounts of money to freeze their tails off. New England won't be warm either, but it sure as hell isn't Lambeau Field at the coldest time of year. With that said, I am hoping the NFL will change its ways and switch it up. I get trying to be fair to both conferences by doing this, but it's a little ridiculous. Before I get to the game(s) in both leagues, I wanted to mention the little vertical notes on the left. I'll gradually put more of my "Fav 5's" up as my entries grow, with this "NBA Players" one being the 1st.

Now to the NFL:

The Pats are now 18-0, beating the Chargers 24-12 in a decent game. The Chargers started both Philip Rivers and LaDainian Tomlinson, but it wasn't enough. Surprisingly enough, this was a battle of the defenses. Rivers threw 2 picks, while Brady threw 3 (with also 2 TDs). LT only got 2 carries for 5 yards the whole game as he watched most of this one from the San Diego sideline. San Diego looked to threaten in the 3rd when Antonio Cromartie intercepted Tom Brady (3rd INT) in the end zone from within in SD 10 yard line. It was a huge momentum turner, but the Pats overcame it, like they've overcome every obstacle this season. Moss was held without a single catch in this one, but the 2 running backs, Kevin Faulk (8 catches, 82 yards) and Laurence Maroney (25 carries, 122 yards and a TD) were huge in this game to help the Pats reach another Super Bowl. The Pats failed to cover the spread (-14) in this game again. I believe it’s been 9 straight games without a cover now, but clearly they don't care about those sorts of things.

On the NFC side, a replay of the "Ice Bowl" was in the making, as this Green Bay game was the 3rd coldest in NFL history (-1 degrees, -23 with wind chill). The Packers and Giants both opened the game throwing the ball and Brett Favre, the messiah, was wildly ineffective with his small passes to both his running backs and wide receivers for small gains. The game was close throughout and actually needed OT for another Giants road win (+8 in this one). I thought coming in that a huge factor would be the Giants running game versus the Packers. The Pack feature their lone back, Ryan Grant, who played for the Giants and came out of nowhere in the middle of the season, while the Giants used their 2-headed running attack with both Brandon Jacobs, a beast, and Ahmad Bradshaw, a quick and deceptive back. Grant only got 13 carries for 29 yards in this one, while the Giants' duo combined for 37 carries, 130 yards and 2 TDs. It was clearly a game-changer. Brett Favre threw the ball 35 times for 2 TDs, but the Giants controlled the ball better with their running to give Eli Manning 40 throws. Favre looks to have gotten a better line, but he had 2 INTs, while Eli is still perfect this postseason with ZERO picks. The Giants move onto Super Bowl XLII to meet the Pats for a rematch of the final regular season game, which the Pats won in the 4th quarter 38-35. Good Luck getting a ticket for this one.

One game in the NBA tonight and it was in Phoenix. I don't understand why they would even have a lone game tonight, but whatever. It was a loss by the Nets (who have lost 3 straight against the Knicks in ONE season). Nothing was too much out of the ordinary. Phoenix was clicking on all cylinders in a home beat down of a bad team. Boris Diaw had a solid game, still starting for Grant Hill, with 14 pts, 10 rebs, 6 assts, 2 stls with no TOs. I guess he'd be a decent starter for a couple of weeks, since he's been solid in the past with some PT, but I personally don't believe he's a good player with a better post player on the floor with him. He's shown in this game that his fantasy game is sweet if he's on.

AWOL...

2008-01-18T11:09:00.000-08:00

I won't be at home until Sunday night, so no new blog posts until Monday, or Sunday night at earliest. Sorry, but it's not too convenient for me.

Kenyon Martin

2008-01-16T22:05:00.000-08:00

I apologize that I missed this injury report, but I believe this uncommon injury is worthy of a post by itself. Kenyon Martin missed the loss in Atlanta yesterday due to a staph infection. The severity of the injury does not sound too serious since he may return as soon as tomorrow for the Nuggets' home game hosting Utah, but the body placement of the injury on the "buttock" was too much. This guy is another power forward from Denver with bad luck injuries, but this one is a little ridiculous. Denver must be the source of bad luck for big men. What goes around, comes around though as Marcus Camby has enjoyed some great injury-free seasons for the Nuggets, playing 70 games last season and having only missed one game in thirty-seven games this season. Kenyon Martin, you're the first player to get his own segment on my blog in its young history, Congrats!

HUGE Wednesday Night

2008-01-16T17:20:00.000-08:00

Wednesday was a huge night for basketball in an early ending night. The last game that finished was in Milwaukee at 7:30 pm pacific time. A lot of blowouts tonight and not too much drama, but TONS of fantasy implications.

- The night started in Miami, where the Bulls were the visitors. Kirk Hinrich was out again (day-to-day) with back spasms, but the Bulls still spanked the Heat (126-96), who got a boost with the return of Shaq. He played fairly well too with 24 pts, 10 rebs, maybe his best performance of the young season actually. Thabo Sefolosha had a second straight start at SG, with Duhon at PG, and was more than solid in this one (17 pts, 6 rebs, 2 stls). The Heat looked like the team Pat Riley wanted on the court at the beginning of the season in terms of personnel, but were far from good. I think this team is honestly done. They're the worst team in the league. I don't hesitate to say that either for a team that's lost 11 straight. Being blown out at home by a team that's struggling itself is not the sign of a team that is ready to make a push. They're worse than the Knicks and the T-Wolves. At least the Knicks aren't afraid of making moves and losing money (because their pockets have no end, just terrible front office decisions) and the Wolves look like they have a future with their young talent. Miami has a 26 year old superstar, who might already be past his prime, although I don't believe so he has, but he will consider leaving Miami in two years. Miami has to look at its future and they need another big-time player alongside D-Wade. A lottery pick in this year's deeeep draft is the answer.

- Another blowout in the next one, this time in Toronto. This game was the biggest of the night though as far as I'm concerned. Sacramento got completely healthy. They lost by 25 (116-91), but Kevin Martin, Mike Bibby and Ron Artest were all in this game. All also came off the bench, in favor of John Salmons, Beno Udrih and Francisco Garcia. After a 25 point loss, I wouldn't be surprised if Reggie Theus inserted all three of his fragile stars in the next contest. My Bargnani watch has him with another terrible night - 7 pts, 6 rebs on 3-13 shooting in 26 imnutes. The Raps won again behind Chris Bosh again. Maybe he should make a video every couple of weeks promoting himself because it's working. He had 31 pts, 9 rebs on 11-12 FG shooting in this one. Oh yea, only Garcia scored double digits out of him, Beno and Salmons and he had only 10 pts. I think the early waiver wire pickups of Kings players is just about done. I will say that I believe Udrih has the most value of the three due to the many trade rumors surrounding him. Udrih has proven a more than capable starting PG this season.

- Even though I've been trying to give Charlotte their dap for being competitive, I forgot to mention that after their freak losses at PG, both have been re-inserted to the starting lineup. Charlotte is a good team though. They beat Orlando at home tonight, overcoming Dwight Howard's monstrous 20-20 game (24 pts, 21 boards). Gerald Wallace was huge again for the Cats with 36 pts, 14 rebs and 3 stls. He and J-Rich, 26 pts in this one, have been carrying the Cats along with Nazr Mohammed off the bench.

- Golden State in Indiana had to be the depressing game of the night. It was an exciting one as the Warriors usually make them, but they forced 24 TOs to lose in a huge lead in the 4th quarter. They were outscored 46-24 in the final frame and lost 125-117 overall. Fantasy implications aside, this game disgusted me to see a team with so much explosion and talent to have such polarizing qualities. The highs in their wins so so great, yet the losses seem so painful. With that said, the Pacers were missing Jamaal Tinsley in this one with Andre Owens starting again in his spot. Troy Murphy continues to come off the bench, while Jermaine O'Neal has been starting at the center spot.

- The battle of the two New York teams - well, the Nets will be in New York shortly enough - swung in favor of the Knicks, who are playing surprisingly well lately. This time, even on the road as they went in and took the game in the Meadowlands. Jason Kidd had 10 assts in the 1st quarter, but finished with only 17 (only 17 assists... only Jason Kidd can put the word "only" in front of 17 assists). The Nets played well, but couldn't keep the score going with the Knicks because of their unproductive bench (13 pts total, 9 from Bostjian Nachbar). Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph led the way for New York, 35 pts, 8 assts and 24 pts, 11 rebs respectively.

- Portland visited the C's in a matchup of the hottest young team in the league and a team who might be reeling... at a record of 30-6. The Celtics did win this one behind Ray Allen's 35 pts, but missed Rajon Rondo, who missed another game. Portland and Boston both played like a couple of really good teams in this league, but Boston pulled it out at home in the end.

- Another blowout occurred in New Orleans. This one wasn't surprising though as the Hornets took advantage of having a young, unexperienced Sonics team at home. Earl Watson started at PG and played like a starter in this one with 17 pts, 11 assts in the 31 point loss. The Hornets got a big boost off the bench in this one as no starter played over 30 minutes with the exception of Tyson Chandler (36 minutes - 14 pts, 21 rebs). They got 52 of their 123 pts off the bench. I always thought they had talent off the bench, the starters were just playing at such a high level that Byron Scott wasn't letting him reserves get a rhythm in games. This is gonna be a huge boost in the long run for the talented and young Hornets team.

- The last game of the night was in Milwaukee, where the Bucks beat the Hawks. Mo Williams was replaced in the starting lineup by Royal Ivey. I don't think Mo's issues to be a big one and would expect him to return their next contest. The final score in this one was 87-80. I wasn't real excited that this was how the NBA night ended, but Andrew Bogut did have 21 pts, 10 rebs to lead the Bucks to a win.

Tuesday..

2008-01-15T16:14:00.000-08:00

There were eight games tonight, but I'm going to start with something I missed last night during the Laker/Sonic game. Chris Wilcox returned to the Sonics' lineup after a a brief absence of games. He came off the bench to score 12 pts and grab 9 boards, which is pretty much along his averages of 13 and 8, but he did it in only 16 minutes. It's probably safe to say that he'll be back in the starting lineup in their next game on Wednesday in New Orleans so play him like you normally would and expect for him to get his minutes. There was also news about Nene's absence from the Nuggets, which was not immediately released. Apparently, he had to get a testicular tumor removed. At this point it's unclear whether or not the tumor was cancerous, but it's understood that the tumor was found early so everything sounds good for Nene right now, as good as a tumor could sound anyways. Hopefully he's doing fine though and his luck changes. At this point in the his career, he has not had very good luck with his health and injuries, but hopefully this incident marks a turn for him

- Kirk Hinrich missed the Bulls game in Orlando tonight due to back spasms. It was a game-time decision so you couldn't really have expected it at all. He didn't miss much though except his team getting completely dominated. The Magic only led by 5 at the half, but once the Bulls scored only 10 pts in the 3rd quarter, the game might as well have been over. Ironically enough, Joakim Noah, the rookie Bull who was suspended by his own teammates had the best stats in this game with 12 pts and 11 rebs, albeit some was in garbage time in the fourth quarter. The Magic continue to start Mo Evans, but Keith Bogans is playing almost the same number of minutes (24 for Mo, 22 for Keith) while having better production in this game (Mo's 9 pts compared with 15 for Keith). This battle will be interesting to keep an eye on, but it's starting to look like a platoon situation at the 2-guard for Orlando and I own Mo, the starter, but I wouldn't be confident owning either depending on how the situation looks in the near future.

- Denver visited the southeast tonight to meet a half-empty gym in Atlanta. Honestly, Seattle and New Orleans have attendance and property issues, but Atlanta's gotta be in that top five for teams that need to switch cities (Memphis is probably in there as well). Anyways, in the game Atlanta actually played very well, basically keeping the lead for the whole game until the fourth when Denver threatened for a while. The final score was 104-93. I mentioned Nene before and there's obviously no foreseeable timetable for his return to the court as his condition is not completely clear yet. Joe Johnson and Carmelo Anthony were on fire in the 1st half. Joe had 17 at the half, but finished with only 22, while Melo kept his hot shooting throughout, finishing with 36 pts and 11 rebs.

- New York is starting to show some life after their unexpected blowout of the Pistons. They won again at home tonight (and MSG is barely a home court for NY considering how many boos are heard throughout games) against a solid Wizards team. Antonio Daniels sat out this game with Roger Mason Jr. starting in his stead. Daniels missed this game due to knee soreness, which was the same injury that kept him out in December so keep an eye on his condition because this is a sign that he may not be 100%. He's considered day-to-day so it's difficult to say whether or not you should start him, but the more important thing is to make sure he's healthy because he's got a great situation starting at PG with Arenas potentially out for the rest of the season. Mason had 20 pts on 8-14 shooting. For the Knicks, Fred Jones has been starting at the point since Stephon Marbury had been sidelined with an ankle injury. It's unsure whether or not Marbury will require surgery, but if that is the case he would miss an extended period of time and it's time to drop him. I would drop him even if he opts out of surgery, although that would make no sense considering the Knicks' standing right now, because of Nate Robinson's emergence in the offense and the fact that just about no Knick is ownable for an extended period of time without frustration.

- As I suspected, the Pistons would play strong at home after an eye-opened in New York. They beat Toronto handily at home by 14 pts although it wasn't the freight-train like performance I was expecting. Andrea Bargnani was held scoreless in this one, as I will continue to note his struggles. He had great expectations coming into this season after a great finish to his rookie campaign. It doesn't make any sense, but his performance thus far would define a "sophomore slump". Meanwhile, Rip had 39 pts in this one to lead Detroit to the win.

- Houston played tonight... You would think that would begin a section about the Sixer@Rocket game, but no. It's my way of introducing the Cavs in Memphis, which was a thrilling OT game that involved Lebron and Juan Carlos Navarro at the end of regulation. Lebron put the Cavs up 3 pts toward the end of regulation before Navarro sent the game to extras with a long range bomb. Lebron James scored 42 pts in regulation and finished the game with half a hundo. He took over the game down the stretch and had the sick line to show for it - 50 pts, 8 rebs, 9 asts, 6 treys, 3 stls and all those pts on 18-28 from the field. No other player in the NBA is capable of those numbers on a given night but Lebron, he's in the company of one when it comes to filling a stat sheet. Navarro had 26 off the bench and Rudy Gay had 30 (all in regulation) to lead the Grizzlies. The final score was 132-124 OT.

- The home team, Golden State, won in Minnesota tonight in rather unspectacular fashion. Games in Minnesota are generally just that though. Ryan Gomes was my most recent hot pickup. He had 15 pts and 5 rebs in this one, while Antoine Walker got a shot from the past, scoring 26 pts and grabbing 10 rebs off the bench. It wasn't enough though, as Golden State got the win with captain Jack and Baron leading the way. Baron had 22 pts, 9 asts and 5 stls, while Jack added 21 pts.

- Philly visited the Rockets tonight, which was actually a good game in its own right, although it wasn't really close until the fourth. Houston doesn't seem to be holding leads too well recently, losing in the fourth to New Orleans, and getting outscored 37-22 in this one. Houston fans believe that trading Tracy McGrady would be better for the team, but that clearly would not be the case. These games would be finished by a player who can dominate like McGrady and once he returns, the Rockets will be a better team. The Rockets really should have won this game. All the starters played well, except for Chuck Hayes, who got less minutes than Luis Scola and Scola was in the game at the end (17 mins to 22 mins). Yao led the way with 25 pts on 8-11 shooting. The Sixers were led by Andre Miller, who the Rockets didn't have an answer for in the fourth. He finished with 26 pts, 5 rebs, 6 assts.

- In LA, the other Hollywood team was in command for most of the night. They kept Steve Nash and Phoenix at bay, while scoring efficiently themselves. Cassell had a game that made him look 28, instead of 38 (even though literally he probably looked the same, the guy doesn't age, and that is not a compliment). He finished the game with 32 pts, 6 rebs, 7 assts on 15-21 shooting. On the Suns' side, most eyes should have been on Boris Diaw, who's been horrendous overall this season, but had a great game in his 2nd start in place of Grant Hill, who will be out another 2-3 weeks still. Diaw was pretty quiet tonight however (7 pts, 6 assts in 37 minutes), burning owners who picked him up speculating his value for the next 10 games or so. I personally don't trust Boris Diaw. Even though the word around the league is that this guy's got good character, I just don't think he plays well with Amare in there at center or has the mental/physical toughness/athleticism to play at the level he did in that contract season.

NCAAB Thoughts

2008-01-15T09:51:00.001-08:00

With the tournament "approaching", I started thinking about possible draft implications for the next NBA season. There's quite a buzz around the top tier freshmen from the class of '07. I agree that this is the year in which the talent maybe match that '03 draft, or going on potential, it may be even stronger. Let's not forget about the older guys though. Dynamic youngsters like Derrick Rose, OJ Mayo and Kevin Love are somehow overshadowing the guys who are going are also going to be in the '08 draft and are potential All-Americans when this college season is said and done. Guys like Darren Collison, Roy Hibbert and Chris Lofton (who's having a down season I admit) are probably going to be dropped in the upcoming draft lower than when they might normally be drafted because these younger guys have more "potential" and are the flashier pick. More than likely though, UCLA and Memphis will be very close to the final weekend in the tournament, but it won't be because of Derrick Rose and Kevin Love, although both players are incredibly dynamic and have shown that they make their teammates better and their teams great, it will be more due to the experienced play of Chris Douglas-Roberts and Joey Dorsey, or the leadership of upperclassmen Josh Shipp and Darren Collison. Don't get me wrong, I was one of the more excited guys coming into the college season to see the talents of Michael Beasley and Eric Gordon, but I just want to give recognition where its due. The guys we've watched for the past couple of seasons are still there and playing strong basketball. Here's my bias working... How could I write about college basketball and not mention UNC? Well, here's my bold prediction of the year. This team has an opportunity to win two national titles in a row. I know it sounds ridiculous to predict something like this, considering Florida just finished a repeat and the depth of college basketball today, but considering the amount of talent Carolina possesses and the projected depth in the '08 draft, I believe UNC will retain its 3 top talents for another season, Tyler Hansbrough (a project 4 year player in college since he arrived at Chapel Hill), Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington (both of whom are amazing talents, but are sophomores in a year of freshman and are arguably undersized at their positions for the next level). All three will continue to mature together and as the #1 team in the country already, they would only get better with another season under Roy Williams, who is also one of the best coaches in the country. After these three guys, they still have a ridiculously deep roster, of which no contributing players are seniors. If UNC does happen to win the title this season and Hansbrough wins the Naismith player of the year, which he's got to be the front-runner for at this point in the season, I can't possibly imagine Tyler leaving on a higher note from college and couldn't see him returning even though he'd still only be a borderline lottery pick. I don't know if they could replace a piece as big as he's been to the program, but there's no doubt UNC is in good shape. With all this said, there's still about half of the 2007-08 season left and I'm sure March Madness will be as exciting as its ever been. Is there a better month for sports than March? You get great playoff basketball (college football could learn a thing or two from this), the rumblings of the NFL draft and the start to the MLB season, which needs to do something about steroids because Congress doesn't really "eff" around, for lack of a better term, but that's a different story.

2nd Half of Monday Night

2008-01-14T20:40:00.000-08:00

- San Antonio played a relatively quiet home game, which is how they prefer to do everything...quiet. Samuel Dalembert (12 pts, 20 rebs, 3 blks) has been on a tear lately for the Sixers so keep plugging him if you've got him and Tim Duncan (18 pts, 16 rebs, 6 assts, 2 blks) has been doing the same for the Spurs.

- Utah beat Milwaukee in a battle of disappointing teams on the season. Utah's found a bit of spark, however, winning their last four games while getting healthy in the process. Michael Redd is back in the starting lineup to stay so don't worry anymore about his status and drop most Bucks from your team because if they aren't starting, they aren't going to be solid fantasy contributors. Andrew Bogut (23 pts, 10 rebs) and Deron Williams (33 pts, 10 assts, 4 stls) were the most productive in this game.

- The Lakers played there first game without breakout center Andrew Bynum, out with the knee injury, in Seattle. It was learned today that Bynum will be sidelined for at least 8 weeks. The game itself was a good one, high scoring and drama in the end. Here's my diary of the play at the end of regulation and OT.

Who better to play in this than Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant. The superstar of Now head-to-head with the Future. Kobe put LA up 1 with 1:25 left with a 3, 113-112. After Luke Walton hit 2 FTs (coming in shooting 63%, figures he made two), Kevin Durant worked his magic, hitting a three to match Kobe and tie the game at 115 off a hand off pass from Luke Ridnour. Kobe and Durant both got a possession after the Durant three, Kobe missing a trey and Durant shooting (and missing) a premature jumper to keep 5.8 on the clock for a Laker possession. Kobe would get one more chance...slapped away! Jeff Green launched the ball into into the stands. OT in Seattle! By the way, I'm facing in Kobe in my main league this week and he's got 42 thus far... I'd be dreaming if I don't think he's going to score again.
Well, not OT gets started, 5:00 on the clock. The tip goes to the Lakers. The Sonics score first, however, on a Nick Collison tip-in. PJ Carlesimo decides to go with Luke Ridnour over Earl Watson down the stretch , interesting, but even though he penetrated and controlled the game well, I don't believe that either PG has a definitive upper hand in the rotation. Seattle's getting some good rolls in the 1st few possessions of OT. Kurt Thomas just put in another Ridnour miss, 121-117 (LAL scored 2 on Kwame Brown FTs). Wow, after a couple Kurt Thomas missed FTs, Kobe puts in a ridiculous hanging 10 footer. Kobe comes down and hits another jumper to tie the game (121-121). WOW, just flipped to Mavs @ Kings. Terry ties the game at 120 with just seconds left and John Salmons puts it away off the glass!! Kings win at HOME and Arco Arena just went crazy!! Crazy ending to an average night. Back to the Laker game, Laker ball with 1:01 on the clock. Green on Kobe, passes and Odom bricks a trey attempt. Sonic ball, Durant with it and Kwame defending and misses short. The Lakers now have the ball with 20 seconds left. Kobe gets the ball easily with Jeff Green on him, 18 footer GOOD! Green was backtracking and was one-on-one. Durant and the Sonics will have one more shot to tie or win with 4.3 seconds left. Kobe is on KD with the foul to give and Kobe gives it. 3.7 left now, Szczerbiak to pass in...and needs a timeout. The ball came into Kurt Thomas, who passes to Nick Collison and misses from the baseline! LAKERS WIN! Kobe does it again, not much else to say.

- Kevin Martin came off the bench for in his second consecutive game after returning from his groin injury. Once again he didn't look like he missed a beat after being out for 5-6 weeks as he went for 39 pts on 14-16 shooting. The man has only missed 4 total shots in his 2 games back, that's crazy. Josh Howard also returned in this one after missing a game with unknown reasons. I don't have much else to say, but wow... these last two games were crazy. Hope you enjoyed my reactions to the Laker game, but the Kings finish was even better albeit in regulation.

The Rest of Monday's News and Notes

2008-01-14T19:41:00.000-08:00

Here's (hopefully) a quick rundown of what I noticed in tonight's games:

- I could've actually watched part of the Denver@Charlotte game, but then I would have been pissed I didn't get to see the end of it, 116-119 - Cats with the win. It looked like a great game with Charlotte playing another great team tough. These Bobcats are for real IMHO and they're only a season away from making the playoffs (assuming they re-sign franchise big man Emeka Okafor to a reasonable contract - reasonable = not Dwight Howard money). 40 pt games seem to be a nightly theme recently and tonight was no exception. In this first game of the night, Gerald Wallace went for 40, but not lacking the other cats either with 8 boards, 5 dimes and 4 in the B/S department. He's no slouch when it comes to producing. Camby's ridiculous 20-23-6 were no match - in the game that is, I'm sure fantasy owners weren't complaining about Camby's line tonight.

- The C's lost again at home, this time to a different southeast division team, the Washington Wizards. Boston's streak of being seemingly unbeatable wasn't going to last, but I'm going to argue that these losses are good for them. They aren't getting blown out and these are low scoring contests, which means that the C's are still playing great defense and with great intensity. It's just a factor of the bench on a cold streak and some late game situations not going their way. I don't believe they have anything to worry about. The PGA tour are going to get their numbers every night (in close games anyway) and if the rest of the team is getting a bit cold, that's to be expected. It's not time to panic yet - they are 30-5 afterall. As for owning Celtic players, I wasn't a fan of any of them outside of the musketeers to begin with. Rondo is as streaky as they come and he wasn't effective tonight. Pick your spots if you're going to start Celtics without the initials PP, RA and KG.

- Portland lost a heartbreaking thriller yesterday afternoon to Toronto, but demolished tonight's Atlantic division foe, the New Jersey Nets. They got a lift since Steve Blake returned after missing only one game. He only had 5 pts in the game, but they don't rely on Blake for much other than managing the game while he's in there and hitting some open shots. This Blazer team is young and deep with talent. I can see them tailing off at some point this season, but if they don't it will be because of the poised play and leadership of sophomore guard Brandon Roy. The kid is as calm as they come and he controls the game whenever he's on the court. Very few players do this. I don't like his fantasy game much for H2H because he doesn't do anything fantastic, but he doesn't hurt you either.

That was the 1st half of the night. I will post the 2nd half of the games once they are finished.

Monday's BIG Game

2008-01-14T15:40:00.000-08:00

There were 7 games tonight, a relatively quiet night for the NBA, so I'll go ahead and discuss some of my thoughts during my brother's junior high basketball game (idea by Tibs). I will post my NBA games in the next entry.

I drove my brother, Mason, to his basketball game at Taylor Middle School (TMS), which was at 5:55 pm (pacific time). I got there after only seeing one of his games before this one (an away game about a week ago) so I wasn't that sure what to expect. I did remember this little Asian kid (about 4'4", no joke - remember, my brother's in seventh grade) on his team who dominated with the ball in his hands. The kid had handles (even though he's so short, I don't understand how he gets the ball between his legs for crossovers), getting into the paint at will and was a creator for his teammates every play. He played the entire game, taking the ball up every time. Anyway, onto this game I just saw. The beginning of the game was horrendous, unwatchable really. The home team, TMS, couldn't buy a basket in the 1st quarter (they play 4 quarters, 9 minutes in each quarter). This is no exaggeration either, they went to score a total of zero points in the first frame as their opponents were on fire to score 15 pts. So, 15-0 after one and I'm just thinking about how much my ass hurt sitting on the old wooden bleachers. Well, at least it can't get any worse, right? I mean, you can't actually score less than zero points in a game. Thankfully it did get better, TMS got on the board in the second with a couple of free throws by their big man in the middle off an offensive rebound (I didn't say it was pretty). The away team (I'll just call them "them" from here on out) was basically cruising throughout the game until mid-way through the third quarter. It was then, when "they" went on a cold streak and a few possessions went TMS's way. They got a couple of steals (one by my bro) and a finally started getting on the glass (my bro part of that as well). They hit some jumpers en route to only a 19-13 deficit going into the last quarter. By the way, if you were wondering about the midget extraordinaire, he was doing his thing getting into the lane at will, but no layups were falling, no teammates were finishing and no calls were going the right way. So begins the fourth quarter and until now, the crowd didn't have much to root for, although middle school students are real obnoxiously loud, but I realized there are a few things that get a crowd riled up. A bad call against the home team, an opposing player complaining about every call and being a complete douchebag (difficult to comprehend adults getting mad at a little kid pre-puberty, but I found that it is possible) and that player eventually feeling the karma. If you couldn't guess, these crowd-pleasers were in full effect. My brother got taken out of the game at the 5:33 mark in the fourth quarter, which was fine since he wasn't really in the game (0-1 shooting, 4 rebs and 2 stls). The score was getting pretty close at that point, shortcake hit a three and made a reverse layup to bring the score to 21-18. Then the dwarf got smacked, he was driving the lane when #3 on "them" basically leveled him with the body. The parents didn't think much of it, but then the kid got irate at the call. Until now, the kid had been complaining about a lot of calls too, but now the game was actually close. Little Asian boy missed both free throws to the dismay of the parents watching, but on the very next drive, blondey (#3) drove the lane and was tripped down to the ground by one TMS's bigs. This got the entire place going (all 50 parents and peer students in the gym) and the home crowd was cheering the cheap shot. I almost started laughing at the irony behind parents rooting for an injury to a little kid, but I didn't. "He" hit one of two free throws to bring the game 22-18. He also eventually put away the game at the end with 2 more free throws, but that was the end of the scoring. Final score: 24-18, "them". Even though my brother didn't play that well or intense, the game was decent and I wasn't disappointed i went.

Tiebreaker on Sunday

2008-01-13T14:15:00.000-08:00

Coming into Sunday, I was tied in my main league 5-5-1 and we happen to be the 3rd and 4th place teams at this moment. That made today huge for positioning in that league. Oh yea, there were a couple of football games on TV as well.

I'll start with San Diego visiting the defending champs in Indianapolis because this game was awesome. It had all the drama you would want from a playoff game. It went back and forth all game. Peyton Manning completed his first 14 passes, trying to do his best to impersonate Tom Brady's all-world performance last night. That was the pinnacle of his afternoon though because he threw picks on the Colts' next two possessions. San Diego had the lead in the second half after losing both starting halfback, LaDainian Tomlinson, AND starting quarterback, Philip Rivers, who had 3 touchdowns before he went down. Antonio Gates played the game, but had a small role in the air game, finishing with only 2 catches for 28 yards. Billy Volek of all people played hero for the Chargers on the last drive of the game after the Colts failed to score with 2:01 left in the game. Volek drove the Chargers down the field and scored the gamewinning TD himself. He finished the game with 3 rushes for -1 yard and the touchdown that sent the defending champion Colts home early. This brings the AFC championship matchup to New England, where the Chargers will try to continue their postseason to Arizona.

There were some basketball games during the NFL playoffs too.

The first was in Canada, where the still streaking Trailblazers visited the Raptors. The Raptors won the thriller in double OT. Chris Bosh is showing why he will be an all-star, coming off his 40 pt performance in this one to score 38, grab 14 boards and block 3 shots. Three Raptors played 50+ minutes in this one and Andrea Bargnani was not one of them. In fact, he started at center only to total 15 minutes in this game. Needless to say, Sam Mitchell does not trust the sophomore center fully yet and you shouldn't either. He's a very streaky contributor and if you don't have to start him in your daily transaction league, you shouldn't. On the Blazer side of the ball, Steve Blake missed this game as expected with his calf injury. Jarret Jack started in his place and had 12 pts, but only shot 4-16 from the field.

Although I'm a Chicago guy and love the Bulls, this Bulls blowout was awesome, selfishly speaking. The Bulls got destroyed by the Hawks, who had been reeling after their over-.500 start to the season. Joe Johnson was the story in this one, going for 37 pts, 9 rebs and 5-6 from three point range. He was utterly unstoppable. On the Bulls side, at least they got some help back with Luol Deng coming off the bench in this one. He returned to the lineup after a three game hiatus to score 28 pts in 30 minutes. I would expect him to be back in the starting lineup in the Bulls next game, with Andres Nocioni returning to his normal role off the bench. Funny tidbit in this game, Joakim Noah, the Bulls rookie out of Florida, was suspended unanimously by his peers. As my blogs continue, I will more and more begin to reveal the teams and players I root for and the ones I despise. Noah is one of those players that when the Bulls drafted, I almost stopped rooting for my hometown team. I stomached it when Chicago drafted 3 Dukies in a relatively short timespan in Jay Williams, Chris Duhon and Luol Deng, but the fact that they would draft a Gator like Noah made me sick to my stomach. Anyways, this might be bad for Chicago in the long haul, but this story made me smile a bit even amidst the Bulls woes this season.

The divisional game of the day was in Houston, between the Hornets and the Rockets. This one was pretty exciting down the stretch as Yao Ming tried to keep Chris Paul and David West down during the fourth quarter. However, Paul worked his magic again when it mattered most, hitting crazy jumpers and finding David West again and again. Houston just couldn't keep up with them. They outscored the Rockets 29-19 in the final frame with CP3 and D-West leading the way. I picked up Luis Scola for a spot start in this one and he was below average, but 6 pts, 7 rebs and 2 stls could've been worse. With T-Mac returning any day now, I wouldn't trust any Rockets off the bench for production and only Yao, McGrady and Rafer Alston (perhaps Shane Battier, I do have him on my team) are the only full-time ownable Rockets. New Orleans looks ready to take that next step to become one of the elite teams in the league with their bench starting to produce like they are capable of doing.

The other divisional playoff game was a battle between NFC East rivals, New York at Dallas. This game was pretty good too with a slightly different storyline. New York was able to hold on late in the fourth quarter, while the home team was unable to complete a late game comeback. Interestingly enough, both home teams won yesterday and both away teams pulled out upsets today. The Giants played well and they are hot and confident. After that near defeat of New England to close the regular season, the G-Men might be looking at a rematch if they can close their Cinderella story at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. This game will have a ton of storylines. I have no doubt that the press will be talking about Eli getting farther in the playoffs than Peyton and that Brett Favre will be the focal point of an article somewhere as well. I'm sure there will also be critics also attacking Tony Romo after this one. For the second consecutive postseason, he has had the ball in his hands with the game on the line and he is now 0-2 in these contests. Whether or not distractions in the form of Jessica Simpson had something to do with his mindset, people will ask questions about his leadership and mental toughness. Romo's a great player already and he will be just fine next season, but IMHO he needs to understand that if he is to get a new girlfriend, it needs to be in the offseason so there is at least fewer distractions at the time. This is only good advice if he's looking to become a championship caliber quarterback, which he's not yet. If I were him I wouldn't be able to say no to Carrie Underwood or Jessica Simpson either though. I don't think the women are the distraction for Romo as much as it is the media surrounding Dallas, which is the biggest market for the NFL, and their ridiculous coverage of his private life. These playoffs have had a lot of surprises already and there will be more to come before there are 2 teams heading to Arizona for the 2008 Super Bowl.

The Pistons got destroyed. Not only are these words not frequently spoken in the current state of the NBA, it's even more ridiculous that the loss came from the New York Knicks, who are THE dysfunctional team of professional sports. This being said, I'm sure whoever Detroit has next on the schedule needs to watch out (Toronto at the Palace of Auburn Hills). I don't think Chris Bosh will continue his scoring tear, at least not in this one. Detroit is one of those teams that don't take losing well. I'm sure this was just a lapse in concentration because Detroit probably doesn't prepare the strongest against a team like New York, but they will come out tough and strong against Toronto. All this being said, Detroit was losing by 29 before the 4th quarter began and Flip Saunders started the frame with all bench players with Isiah Thomas following suit quickly after. No starters returned to the game. The game couldn't have gone better for me with my opponent owning a player from each team, Rip Hamilton and Eddy Curry. Curry wasn't one of the chief contributors from New York, finishing with only 7 pts, 6 rebs and 0-4 from the FT line. Rip was even worse on the Pistons' side finishing with only 3 pts on 1-7 shooting. The final score was 89-65 (64 pts is the franchise low for pts scored for the Pistons and the franchise low for the Knicks for pts allowed).

- Golden State and Indiana play on the local FSN-Bay Area network, but since they show hockey once in a while and they own exclusive rights to Warrior contests, there isn't an alternate way to watch the game. That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen. If I'm mistaken in my reasoning here and there is a way to watch the game in situations as this, please let me kno. The game was put on after the hockey game concluded at the 5:00 (or so) mark in the 3rd quarter. The Warriors played pretty bad in this one, but they kept it close the whole way with great energy off the offensive glass. Monta Ellis and Baron Davis kept the Warriors in it until they finally took their first lead of the game toward the end of the 3rd quarter. The game was a great one that went down to

- Early in the 2nd half in LA, the Lakers held their breath for their big man in the middle, Andrew Bynum. He came down awkwardly and clutched his knee and needed help to the locker room. He didn't look to put any pressure on his leg. I'm sure more will come out on this in the near future. The game in question was controlled by the hometown Lakers for most of the game. In the fourth quarter, the Grizzlies made their run and went back and forth with the Lakers, probably not a coincidence that they made a run after Bynum was out of the game. However, Kobe started taking over the game in the fourth in a way that everyone is used to, hitting clutch free throws and throwing his body into the lane. The Lakers went up 3 on a couple of Kobe free throws (he was 14-15 from the line) with 40 seconds left when Rudy Gay hit a huge 3 to tie. The next possession Kwame Brown was fouled going for a dunk. Kwame, who was in the game for Andrew Bynum after the injury, had been 0-2 in the game and only 11-29 on the season (37.9%). Kwame made 1-2 and it proved to be the gamewinner. The Lakers are now at 6 wins in a row. If Bynum is to miss an extended period of time, which it looks like he will, Kwame will be the starting center and Kobe will probably look to score more. Bynum owners can only hold their breath since the young center was starting to become one of the elite. For Memphis, they played competitively again, but it doesn't matter. They're still young and if Kyle Lowry's name was Kobe Bryant, he probably would have been shooting free throws to try to win the game after he drove the lane right into Kwame Brown's body. Pau Gasol and Mike Miller led the way for the Grizz, while Rudy Gay had another off night. The Grizzlies are definitely up and coming, but this season is not their time.

Just Saturday

2008-01-12T22:37:00.000-08:00

I'm not going to lie, I didn't watch any games tonight or during day (for NFL playoffs). Thus, I'm just going to note some things I saw that were noteworthy in box scores.

I'm going to start with football since this going to be one of three football days (or nights, however you want to look at it) left for the "2007 NFL season".

- If you're a Packer fan, which seems to be America's team right with Brett Favre, who might be the most loved quarterback of this generation, life is good. Even though Ryan Grant lost two fumbles, he finished with the Packer postseason record of 201 rushing yards and also had 3 TD's. The Packers dominated the Seahawks 42-20. I don't think Green Bay has anything to worry about with Favre leaning towards a return and their future ground game based around Grant, who's poised to become a stud.

- New England didn't cover the spread, Randy Moss had only one catch and it wasn't even a touchdown. Those are about the only negative things you could say about the Pats tonight. They won convincingly by 11 and Brady threw 3 touchdowns while extending his undefeated home record to 7-0 in the playoffs. The AFC is shaping up the way everyone thought... Indy @ New England in the Super Bowl, wait, AFC championship game. Who actually gives the NFC a chance?

Now onto basketball. There were 8 games tonight and LOTS of implications in those games.

- Boston lost another game and lost it in the fourth quarter, scoring only 13 pts in the frame. Rajon Rondo left Friday's game early, which somehow I missed, and missed this game entirely. He's not certain to return for the C's next game on Monday.

- Detroit pulled out a tight one in OT, while Charlotte lost its second consecutive heartbreaker. They've been awfully competitive lately even without Raymond Felton, who sprained his ankle the night before against the Cavs. Jeff McInnis also missed this game due to injury so the Bobcats were basically left without a PG. Matt Carroll and Jason Richardson started at the guard spots with Jared Dudley, the rookie out of Boston College, getting a start at the other forward spot opposite Gerald Wallace. I don't know how the Cats stuck with the Pistons, but some of it had to be because of Nazr Mohammed's continuing tear, as he put in 19 pts and 13 rebs with 3 blks.

- San Antonio dominated Minnesota and there's not much else to be said except for the Wolves continued lack of consistent rotations. Rashad McCants has been re-inserted into the starting lineup as he's been hot lately. Ryan Gomes and Al Jefferson were the forwards while Michael Doleac started at center for the Wolves. It's an interesting look as coach Randy Wittman looks to be experimenting a big lineup. I doubt it'll stick as the Wolves continue to lose and will keep losing all season. They really don't have an answer, so don't trust anyone in the lineup for fantasy outside of Jefferson since none of the players really have much security in terms of PT.

- Utah got a boost at home with Andrei Kirilenko returning to the starting lineup after missing a couple of games. He helped the Jazz beat the Magic at home, going for 16 pts, 7 rebs, 8 assts. The Jazz have proven they can score, but they allowed 115 pts in regulation. I'm sure Sloan isn't completely happy with his squad yet.

- Phoenix got a couple of starters on their way to beating Milwaukee at home. Shawn Marion and Steve Nash both returned in the win. Marion was a bit under the radar in this one, but Nash looked as though he hadn't missed a step en route to 35 pts, but only 7 assts. I suspected the Bucks would score a ton in this game so I made a spot start with Charlie Bell, who had 18 pts, 7 assts in 34 minutes. Mo Williams had a surprising struggling game in this one with only 7 pts in 30 minutes. This could be a bit of fatigue though. He's played over 40 minutes in each of his previous 4 games. Don't think too much about it and keep him in your lineup.

- Exciting news in the Kings loss at home against the visiting Pacers. Even though they lost the game, they got back some help with Kevin Martin. He looked good too, playing 28+ minutes while scoring 25 pts, 7-9 from the field. The Kings are expecting Mike Bibby within the next week likewise so they're getting healthy, which is bad for Beno Udrih, John Salmons and Francisco Garcia owners. Bibby has been the target of trade talks for the past 2 seasons, but he's still in Sac-town so until it's official, I don't want Udrih on my team. As for Martin, it's uncertain whose starting spot he'll be taking yet, whether it be Garcia or Salmons, but both players' owners will be less than pleased with Martin's return. He'll be taking on a lot of the scoring load from here on out.

- With players coming back, others will miss games. Josh Howard was one of those eye-openers tonight. He missed an exciting one between the Mavs and the Clips. This one came down to the last shot and Jerry Stackhouse provided the role of hero (or villain depending on which side you're one, but there can't honestly be that many Clipper fans out there) with a last second three to win the contest for the Mavericks. Tim Thomas was inserted back into the starting lineup for LA as he'd been coming off the bench recently after returning from injury. Thomas played well, scoring 21 pts on 10-17 shooting and dishing out 6 assists. An interesting and odd statistic in this game was that this proved the first game of the season in which the Clippers shot over 50% from the field out of 33 games, shooting 52% in this one.

Chris Bosh's Campaign

2008-01-11T23:54:00.001-08:00

Chris Bosh's attempt to get more votes to start in the 2008 New Orleans All Star game. It's a pretty good one, but unfortunately Lebron James and Kevin Garnett are probably too far ahead to catch.

Friday's OT's and Blowouts

2008-01-11T21:44:00.000-08:00

ESPN had two games on the night, Miami @ New Orleans and Milwaukee @ Los Angeles, neither of which made the top 5 games of the night. There were actually some great games tonight, but unless you have NBA League Pass, you missed out on all of them. Lebron showed why he is the face of the league, Boston bounced back from their surprising loss, Washington beat out Atlanta in OT in a battle of Southeastern teams and Denver pulled out the win what was IMHO the game of the night.

There were some great games and some blowouts. Since my father is Asian, I was forced to sit through the second half of the D-League game between the Rockets and the Timberwolves, which the Wolves won by 1 in the second half (the final score was 113-81, 65-33 at the half). And sitting through that "game" meant missing the end of two great finishes, one in Atlanta, the other in Cleveland...

Anyways, the first game of the night was a Bulls win on the road against a reeling Sixer team. Luol Deng missed this game after it was speculated he might play since the Bulls had 3 days in between games. I would suspect he will return for his next contest, but nothing is certain as it doesn't seem Deng will return until he feels that he's fine. Andres Nocioni had a huge game, starting in Deng's place with 26 pts, 7 rebs and 2 blks and Joe Smith had another solid performance, chipping in 19 pts, 6 rebs. He's been incredibly hot lately and while I don't expect him to keep it up all season, he shouldn't be available in any league as he will get the PT and start the rest of the season, since the Bulls have zero post offense without him. For the Sixers, Samuel Dalembert had a monster game with his first career 20-20 game (21 pts, 20 rebs) as the Sixers did all they could to comeback at the end. They lost by only 3 after trailing by 12 at the end of the 3rd.

The Bobcats and Cavaliers were the best game of the night as the Cats were coming off a huge upset win in Boston. This game went into 2 OT's and Lebron's line was simply ridiculous... 31 pts, 19 rebs, 8 assts, 4 stls, 3 blks, 2 threes on 10-20 FG shooting and 9-15 from the line. The free throw percentage was disappointing and 8 turnovers were a bummer also, but you got to take your downs with the huge ups Lebron gives you. The Bobcats put forth a valiant effort with Nazr Mohammed putting in another great game off the bench, 21 pts, 15 rebs, but Lebron and the Cavs were too much for the young squad. Anderson Varejao was also big in this one playing more minutes than both starters Zydrunas Ilgauskas' 25 minutes and Drew Gooden's 34 minutes with 41 minutes. He had 16 pts and 18 rebs in those minutes. I picked him up after this game since he helps you in multiple categories, you just have to hope he plays enough minutes.

Boston became the first team to 30 wins as they won in a low scoring contest in New Jersey. Jersey was sticking with the Celts for most the game, but Boston eventually pulled away and took the game. Sean Williams contributed very little again in this one because he was in foul trouble, a frequent problem for the rookie. Josh Boone was the better producer of the two, scoring 14 pts and grabbing 16 rebs while blocking 4 shots. He only had 3 fouls. Jason Kidd was an assist short of another triple double and seems to come close to a triple double every night. Ray Allen and Glen Davis both returned to play in this game after missing the last Celtics game. Allen is coming off an offseason with surgery on both ankles so keep an eye out on his durability as the season progresses. Glen Davis is a rookie who's getting inconsistent PT right now so I don't expect him to be owned except in the deepest of leagues. For those leagues, Davis returned to play 14 minutes and score 7 pts.

The second OT game was between 2nd and 3rd in the southwest division. Washington went into Atlanta and won in the extra session. Washington's bench outproduced Atlanta's non-factoring bench outside of Josh Childress, who had 11 pts. Josh Smith and Joe Johnson both played over 49 minutes in this one. Al Horford did happen to grab a career high 19 rebounds in this one. The bigger story preceding this game was Atlanta's loss of a win against Miami since Shaquille O'Neal was wrongly fouled out of that game. Due to this error, the two team will replay the last 51 seconds of that game when Atlanta led 114-111 in OT, which was when O'Neal was disqualified from that game, the game which Atlanta eventually "won" 117-111. That game happened on December 19th and the replay will occur before the team's next meeting on March 8th. I'm more interested in the fantasy implications from that game, but it shouldn't be an issue in such a short amount of time.

Toronto won in New York. Usually I would leave it at that when it comes to two teams I don't really care about. Toronto is in another country and New York is the laughing stock of professional sports, but this game did feature one bright spot. That being Chris Bosh and not about his ridiculous commercial to get votes for the All-Star game. He scored 40 points in this one and grabbed 11 boards, which is definitely notable enough for me to mention. While I am talking about this game, I'd also like to heed some advice to Jose Calderon owners, which is that this guy should be one of the most dealt players before TJ Ford returns from his spinal issues, which he will return before long. The reports might be saying that Ford is uncertain when his return will be, but if he is going to miss a prolonged period of time, I don't believe so many reports would be released concerning his return. Anyways, I believe he should be back just before the All-Star break, which is relatively soon (less than a month, February 15-17).

Finally, ESPN's first game of the night, Miami @ New Orleans. This game was awful from the very beginning. The Hornets completely dismantled this putrid Heat team. I'll just get to the stats... Bobby Jackson and the Hornets bench finally showed some signs of life, as he went for 25 pts on perfect shooting (9-9) and SEVEN threes. This came out of absolutely nowhere as the former sixth man of the year had been shooting under 30% from the field this season, but it may the start of something special for the Hornets because they need all the production they can get off the bench. Chris Paul was also perfect from the field, 7-7 and 2 threes, with 16 assists in limited minutes due to the blowout. Final Score: 114-88

The game that couldn't end quickly enough: T-Wolves @ Rockets. This game was honestly unwatchable, but I sat though an entire half of it. The top performers in this game were Ryan Gomes and Corey Brewer, who lost his starting spot recently, from Minnesota and Luis Scola and Carl Landry for the Rockets. Landry played a total of 17 minutes in 3 games before this game. Oh yeah, this was again without T-Mac and it is the Rockets' 5th straight win without McGrady.

The best per-game matchup of the night was in mile-high, where Orlando was the visitor. Maurice Evans started the game again for the Magic and scored 15 pts. Keith Bogans had 3 threes and 14 pts off the bench. I think Evans will remain starting unless he plays his way out of the lineup. I just picked him up so I'm hoping that doesn't happen. Denver played great at home, as they should as Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony led the way. Both finished with double-doubles. Iverson with 21 pts, 13 assts and Melo with 32 pts, 11 rebs. Anthony has always taken some criticism for not rebounding well at his size, but he's got 25 boards in his last 2 contests, so people can't really argue with that.

The home-town game was too good either. Golden State held a comfortable lead for most of the contest as they went on to beat Memphis. Pau Gasol was a monster and did everything he could (43 pts, 11 rebs), but his supporting cast was awful. The rest of the Grizzly starters had 24 total pts on 9-33 shooting. The Warriors, on the other hand, were clicking the whole night. Monta Ellis hit his first 12 shots and Baron Davis almost had his own 20-20 game, coming one assist shy. Andris Biedrins left this game early when he took a knee to the hamstring. His condition is not currently known yet, but he did not return to the game.

The Mavericks beat down the Sonics in Seattle tonight and theres not much to say about it. With the Sonics, PJ Carlesimo seems pretty content with his lineup for the time being. Jeff Green is playing through his struggles in the starting lineup, Earl Watson is starting at PG and Wally Szczerbiak is the 6th man scorer off the bench. The freak-out-of-nowhere game that Johan Petro had previously was just that, he finished with 2 pts in this game on 1-6 shooting.

In LA, the Bucks actually played the Lakers quite well on national TV. Kobe dominated the first quarter with 19 pts and 4 threes, but got into foul trouble early in the 2nd quarter. With that said, he got his 4th foul early in the 3rd quarter, but Phil Jackson left him in there. He wasn't really heard much from until it mattered in the fourth quarter. He hit big shots down the stretch and finished with 37 pts. Andrew Bynum was huge again scoring 25 pts and grabbing a career high 17 boards. For the Bucks, they got a boost from the return of all-star Michael Redd from the bench. He scored 22, 10-17 from the field, and looked good moving around the court playing 25 minutes. With Redd returning, most of the Bucks' swing players (Bobby Simmons, Charlie Bell, etc...) will be next to useless on fantasy teams since they were really only contributors in scoring. Redd will be re-taking his role in the Bucks offense of about 24 ppg. Mo Williams is the Buck on a hot streak tho, averaging 28 ppg over his last three games and scoring just that number in this game. Milwaukee was on a little road win streak of 3 games, but they couldn't stay with the Lakers, who look like one of the best teams out west and in the league.

Thursday Night

2008-01-10T19:46:00.001-08:00

As usual Thursday had a shortlist of games.

It started in San Antonio, where the Detroit Pistons were trying to avoid their 3rd straight loss. Detroit shut down Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and much of the Spurs perimeter offense as Tim Duncan couldn't carry the team by himself, although putting up huge numbers with 24 pts, 15 rebs, 5 assts while shooting 8-9 from the free throw line.

The non-TNT game happened in Sacramento, where Memphis outplayed the Kings down the stretch yet couldn't hit clutch free throws to clinch it. Memphis is a young team and they're players will learn with these type of games. Sacramento got a great win at home, with many veterans coming back soon, Bibby on the 16th and Martin on the 14th. Rudy Gay is quickly making a name for himself in Memphis as he is turning into the Grizzlies' goto guy in the clutch, but his turnover with under 10 seconds left clinched the game for the Kings. His line for the game was 31 pts, 7 rebs, shooting 9-13 from the field with 4 threes and 9-10 from the line. Kevin Martin is due back on Monday, but has began practicing with the team and doing contact drills. His return would probably mean the demotion of Francisco Garcia back to the bench and John Salmons would slide to the starting forward spot. Obviously, Garcia's value figures to take the biggest hit. Darko Milicic and Mike Conley continue to get the starts at center and point guard for the Grizzlies. Milicic was one of my recent pickups since he's got some potential. He put up some solid numbers, with 6 pts, 7 rebs, 2 stls and 3 blks. He's ownable as a 3rd center as long as he plays his 25-30+ mins/game.

Shawn Marion, Steve Nash and Grant Hill were all out tonight as the Suns played with a short roster of only 8 players at the Utah Jazz. Nash and Hill were expected to be out, Nash with the flu and Hill recovering from his appendectomy procedure, but Marion was a surprise scratch with a bruised elbow. Utah was without SF Andrei Kirilenko again and Matt Harpring off the bench with the birth of his child. Utah won this game easily at home surprisingly with little production from Boozer. Deron Williams, Mehmet Okur and Ronnie Brewer led the way for the Jazz. On Phoenix' side, Barbosa and Stoudemire tore it up and a couple of role players to look out for are DJ Strawberry, who was called up for this game and could see some minutes while Grant Hill misses time, and Marcus Banks who had been hot lately and started in place of Nash. Strawberry's a strong defensive player and averaged 31+ ppg in the D-League, but his role will be minimal if Marion returns soon, which is likely. Banks was hot and could have solidified a spot in the rotation, but he played an awful game in the place of Nash. After averaging 12 ppg in his past three games, he had 9 pts on 3-11 shooting. I plugged him in for a spot start, but dropped him halfway through the 3rd quarter since he was struggggLing for Marko Jaric. He's gotten his starting guard spot back and played well lately.

Suns' Injuries

2008-01-09T22:40:00.000-08:00

Apparently Steve Nash left the game early due to some sort of stomach virus/problem. Barbosa filled in nicely though in the OT win. Grant Hill is due to miss 2-3 weeks, but it isn't really due to a durability issue. He underwent an appendectomy earlier and will miss time for that. Keep him on your bench. As for Nash, it is uncertain if he will miss any time.

Big Night Wednesday

2008-01-09T19:19:00.000-08:00

11 games on the schedule Wednesday night and there were some exciting news and notes.

- Early on in the night, there were a couple of upsets. Atlanta beat Cleveland at home as Joe Johnson was clutch down the stretch with a total of 29 pts. Boston lost to Charlotte at home as Ray Allen missed this one with a pinched nerve. Tony Allen started in his place and was relatively unproductive. Jason Richardson kept up his hot streak burning the Celts with 34 pts and 9 rebounds. Nazr Mohammed seems to have figured it out off the bench, posting his second solid performance with 18 pts, 10 rebs.

- The Rockets won again without T-Mac, riding Yao Ming's season high 36 pts. T-Mac should be back soon though and Luther Head and Luis Scola figure to take the biggest hits in their stats.

- Toronto beat the Sixers as neither team is really struggling with injuries, but there were a couple of young players to take a look at. On the Raptors' side, Andrea Bargnani continues to start games and do nearly nothing. He's been in what seems like a season-long slump with a great shooting performance every blue moon. If you drafted him in the 6th or 7th round, which is where he went in most leagues, you can only be patient and keep him stashed on your bench until he starts producing or put him in a trade as a filler. Thaddeus Young, the Sixer rookie, has shown flashes of scoring talent with double digit scoring performances off Philly's bench. It's something to keep an eye on, but at this point he's not really a reliable fantasy option.

- The Nets beat the Supes at home. The main note of this game was Kevin Durant, he started and played 30+ minutes, posting 15 pts. He shot 5-14, but you can't really attribute that to his ankle as he's been shooting a bad percentage all season. Johan Petro, however, came out of nowhere to score 22 pts and grab 9 rebs off the bench for the young Sonics. I don't think he'll challenge for a starting spot yet, but this is definitely intriguing since the Sonics aren't contending for anything this season and they might check out some of their young bigs. Jeff Green has been awful from the field the last 3 games, going a combined 7-24. This angers me, but I will be patient with him. He is a rookie, but I believe he's a rookie who can play out of it. He just needs to focus on more than just shooting because he is an all-around player.

- The Lakers killed the Hornets in New Orleans after a long layoff for the home squad. Chris Paul was brilliant again and David West returned after missing just one game to injury. The Lakers are just on a roll and you really can't attribute their success to any one player, but the rest of the west needs to be watching as they've won their last 4 games by at least 16 pts after losing by 19 to the Celtics.

- Miami lost their 9th consecutive contest in Milwaukee. This is just ugly now. They now have to be in the category only Minnesota was associated with, which is WORST in the league. Dwyane Wade did everything he could with 34 pts, but Mo Williams was unstoppable down the stretch, hitting clutch shots from everywhere, whether 3's or free throws. Shaq is probably going to be absent until Miami's current road trip ends, which means Mark Blount may have a bit of scoring value at the center position. Michael Redd was absent again, with Royal Ivey starting in his place. Ivey's not going to be a fantasy contributor, but Charlie Bell could. He only had 11 pts in this one, but he posted 27 and 21 in back-to-back games. Also, although he only shot 5-15, Bobby Simmons could once again be a viable option since he rebounds pretty well for a G-F. Keep him on your watch list at the very least.

- In Dallas, Detroit got smacked after losing a close one to Boston over the weekend. This game might be a big loss too since the Pistons travel to San Antonio to take on the defending champs next. Both these teams and healthy and well so not much happened out of the ordinary fantasy-wise.

- Jermaine O'Neal missed the Pacer's game with a "painful left knee". I'm not sure what that means, but either way, Jermaine's been rather injury-prone the past few seasons and on top of those issues, has been a pretty big disappointment from what you would expect out of him. His 15-7 numbers are nowhere near the 20-10 you expected when drafting him. If you try to trade him, you could use him as a secondary piece, but if not, hope for the best in the second half of the season and that he stays healthy.

- This game was a great one. Phoenix pushed it into OT late without Steve Nash. He left the game in the second half and I'm not sure on his situation yet. Kareem Rush was inserted in the starting lineup at SG, which pushed Mike Dunleavy Jr. into the forward spot, opposite Danny Granger. Shawne Williams got extended minute off the bench and played well with 22 pts, although fouling out in overtime. Troy Murphy came off the bench in this one after starting the last few contests in favor of Jeff Foster. It's probably not a big deal, but against a Suns team, you would think O'Brien would start the 3 point threat, Murphy. Who knows though, monitor that situation.

- Scary Moment in the 2nd quarter of the Warrior/Blazer game when Brandon Roy went down in his 1st game back from the hip injury. He landed awkwardly on a drive right before the half. He returned in the 2nd half, however, so I guess he should be fine. Lots of disappointment on both sides, fantasy-wise, in this game since the Blazers had the game in hand before the fourth quarter even started. Not much can be taken from this game since much of the benches' production was during garbage-time.

- In the Magic/Clipper game, the Clippers lost again (shooting under 50%). It was close at the end, but Hedo Turkoglu has emerged as a great clutch player down the 4th quarter stretch for the Magic. Maurice Evans got the start over normal SG, Keith Bogans. Bogans was really only ownable for his ability to knock down threes, but if he's coming off the bench, he''s nearly useless to you. Evans has a better all-around game as a starter and can help in scoring and rebounding. He could be useful in deep leagues. Jameer Nelson got his starting job back, after Carlos Arroyo had been starting at PG lately even when Jameer first returned from injury. Arroyo struggle the past couple of games though so Nelson probably has his starting gig back. Al Thornton got the start again over Tim Thomas and played well, 4-8 for 11 pts, but so did Thomas, 8-12 and 20 pts. This will be an interesting battle, as Tim Thomas got the minutes toward the end of the game. Thomas is good for scoring and rebounding to a lesser degree, but if Thornton can win over the starting job, he's got a lot of potential with his scoring ability and athletic ability.

Tuesday's Injury Report

2008-01-08T20:11:00.000-08:00

Tuesday was a relatively big night with 18 teams in action. As far as injuries went, there were some pre-game rumors, but not much changed.

- Michael Redd missed another game, but Milwaukee won their game against Philadelphia with Charlie Bell and Villenueva stepping up big off the bench. That makes two big games for Bell so go grab him if you need a spot start. I just did in one of my leagues, dropping Michael Finley.

- Seattle traveled to Cleveland and there was a slight scare late, with Durant turning his ankle off a jumper. He walked off the court looking fine though, so I wouldn't think it's anything worse than a mild ankle sprain.

- T-mac is due out for probably another week for the Rockets, but Luther Head was huge with 24 pts in their win over the Wizards. On the Wizards side, Gilbert Arenas has recently hinted towards missing the rest of the season. At this point there's reason to make a rash decision if you've not already cut Arenas from your team. He basically said if his team has a chance late to make the playoffs and he feels he can help, he'll play and if they're cruising or out of it, he'll shut it down until the '08-09 season. This does up Antonio Daniels value a bit though, as he could be a solid contributor for the rest of the season.

- Dwyane Wade started tonight, although initially hinting towards coming off the bench again. He had a solid line tonight so it's probably safe for now to keep him the your starting lineups. Miami as a unit however looks awful. They just lost against the worst team in the league, albeit on the road.

- Luol Deng was out again when the Bulls hosted the Knicks. Nocioni filled in and was underwhelming to say the least with 7 pts on 3-12 shooting. Deng's still considered day-to-day with the achilles tendon injury and Chicago hopes to have him for their next game on Friday, but at this point it's uncertain. I'd keep him benched unless you've got a free roster slot. He doesn't seem worth the risk right now. The Bulls could use him though because they just lost against the Knicks at home and the crowd wasn't too pleased with the fourth quarter effort.

- Jamaal Tinsley returned to play in the Pacers' loss @ Utah. He played 29 minutes, shooting 5-10 for 15 pts and 5 asts. It was a decent game, but what owners are looking for are his dish numbers. Tinsley should be fine moving forward. It was a blowout in the 4th quarter so Jim O'Brien was resting his starters. Andrei Kirilenko was out again for the Jazz.

- I thought Kevin Martin might have returned in this contest with the Magic visiting, but he was in street clothes again. He should be back soon from his groin injury, but it may be another week.

Monday 1/7

2008-01-07T19:28:00.000-08:00

Only two games on the calendar tonight as college football plays its last game of the 2007-08 season, the national title between Ohio State and Louisiana State. If you're a college football fan, you might be looking towards next season already or towards the NFL draft. Well, there is some exciting news out of college football and the BCS as they will look at a +1 system for deciding a national champion. I personally have been rather indifferent over the system in place, but I can sympathize with the cons more than the pros. Before getting to basketball, I'll give some of my thoughts on this year's NFL Draft and how I expect the top of fantasy football to happen.

I'm not Mel Kiper Jr. but I know that Run DMC is a top prospect and I can't see Miami passing him up at number one even if they do have a great running back already in Ronnie Brown, but he's dealing with a pretty serious injury and it's going to take him a while to get back. Glenn Dorsey's the other guy. He is going to be a game-changer on defense with his size, speed and strength. If Miami passes on McFadden, they better take Dorsey. Bill Parcells is a smart guy, he'll do the right thing. Another thing about the draft is the QB's. Normally, there's always a top quarterback prospect that at least might go number one. That guy was supposed to be Brian Brohm preseason, but Louisville had a terribly disappointing season and now the top prospect is Matt Ryan out of Boston College. This might only be me, but I don't believe he's going to be enough of a wow-player to go number one.

As for fantasy, McFadden's got a shot to be a factor. He won't be Adrian Peterson, but he could rush for 1000 yards and get 5-6 TD's in limited starts. Anyways, my top five picks for next season would be:

1. LaDainian Tomlinson - He gets 15 TD's year in, year out. How can you possibly pass on him.

2. Adrian Peterson - He's amazing. I'm wowed by his raw ability, but if I get the second pick, I'd rather trade it. I just don't trust his durability.

3. Brian Westbrook - Not underrated anymore, although I disagree with what all the experts say. I never drafted him early because he's never stayed healthy, but he showed he could last season and was ridiculous.

4. Steven Jackson - He's almost like the Gilbert Arenas of the NFL. He loves to talk and set high expectations for himself. The second part is what's important, especially if all that talent arount him stays healthy.

5. Tom Brady - Randy Moss would probably be number 6 on my list, but both these guys move down if they split up, which is all up to Moss.

Honestly, even though quarterbacks and wide receivers were so productive this season, I'm going to go running back-running back next season in the first two rounds. People are going rank Tom Brady and Tony Romo 1-2 in the QB rankings and I won't get either of them, but if Peyton Manning or Carson Palmer drops to the third round, I'll have myself a sick team already. It is too early to speculate though because this NFL season isn't even over yet.

So I'll move onto Monday night's basketball games, Denver @ Phoenix and San Antonio @ Golden State:

The first game was DEN@PHX and honestly nothing was too new in this game. As expected, the game was ridiculously high scoring with Phoenix leading 46-34 after one and it was 106-90 after three. In the first half the story was Marion, who had five 3's and 23 pts, 9 rebs and AI who had 17 pts in the first quarter. I was going to drop Nene after this contest, but in garbage time, he upped his game numbers to 12-9, which is solid considering he's getting 20 min/game consistently right now. Not really anyone you could pick up from these two teams since most the important players should be owned.

The other game was THE game of the night. Golden State pulled out the narrow victory at home in OT against the San Antonio Spurs. Before getting to the fantasy aspect of this game, I got to say that Baron Davis went completely unconscious down the stretch in this game. He's big game and took it to another level when it counted. He made all the big plays for his team by passing and hitting shots late in the shot clock. San Antonio showed their poise, pushing the game to OT, but lost it late as they just couldn't keep up with the explosive Warrior team.

Finally, Tim Duncan started this game, which is good since he's been a bit injury-prone in his career. As for Finley, it's probably time to drop him. Manu's coming off the bench, but he's getting more minutes and more into the offense, which diminishes Finley's role. Finley will play his 25-30 minutes, but his production will be erratic so it's tough to say when to start him or not. He had a decent game with double digit scoring, but scoring is probably all he'll give you most nights. He's still a decent option, but if there's someone better on waivers, go ahead and use Finley as your drop. I will probably wait for a down night before I drop him though. Bench players on the GS provided a boost in this game, but none of those swingmen among Matt Barnes, Kelenna Azubuikke and Mickael Pietrus have been consistent enough to own except in the deepest leagues. If you're desperate for a SG/SF position player, look for the hottest of those three and grab him for a spot start, but don't expect him to be a long term option.

Sunday 1/6

2008-01-06T22:06:00.000-08:00

There were eight games on the schedule on the last night of the week for fantasy. Before I get to some of my points of the day, I just wanted to add another team to my list of teams already. This one is located on CBS's sports website.

The league settings are a bit different as it is a H2H league, but the scoring is more of an NFL format. Waivers are weekly and rosters are set for the entire week on Sunday nights or Monday mornings. The scoring is based upon eight categories, points (.25), total rebounds (.5), assists (.5), steals (.5), blocks (.5), turnovers (.5), double-doubles (2) and triple doubles (5). As ridiculous as my luck has been for draft position, I finally got a spot not in the 5-6 range. It's a twelve man league and I got that elusive 1st pick. This draft is midseason so IMHO the draft takes even more skill as you are trying to figure out how good players have been as to how you believe they will be for the rest of the season. A couple of notes before I reveal my team about the league. It only has three positions, guard, forward and center. There are 13 roster spots, but the draft was 14 rounds since we play with a Injury Spot, which Yahoo! should never have gotten rid of. Well, here's my team:

1. Lebron James (F - CLE) - Honestly, in a league without percentages and where triple doubles are worth so much, who else are you going to take. The man does it all.

2/3. Shawn Marion (F - PHX)/Al Jefferson (FC - MIN) - All the rest of my picks will be back-to-back with the exception of the last one. I was so happy Al fell to me because he's a great fantasy C with double-double potential every night and Marion is Marion no matter what format league you're in, he'll give you some of everything and not hurt you.

4/5. David West (F - NOH)/Kevin Martin (G - SAC) - David West is a beast and he's going to reach 20/10 by the end of this season. The injury does not seem too bad as Byron Scott has said he may return as soon as New Orleans' next game, which is Wednesday. Kevin Martin was the curious pick. Although I don't like one dimensional players that much and Martin is one-dimensional IMHO, he's worth taking here because of the emphasis on scoring in this league and a 24+ ppg scorer in the 5th round is huge and a guard was needed. He will also be returning either this or next week.

6/7. Stephen Jackson (GF - GSW)/Brad Miller (C - SAC) - Getting another guard was crucial and Jack is a legit 21-4-5 player who I believe will keep it up all season. Having Nellie as his coach has done him wonders. Miller is a good passing big who's having a solid comeback campaign and center is always a tough position to fill.

8/9. Leandro Barbosa (G - PHX)/Marvin Williams (F - ATL) - Wanted to get another guard and Barbosa's an explosive one. Marvin the next best player on the board as the other pick.

10/11. Samuel Dalembert (C - PHI)/Elton Brand (FC - LAC) - No clue how Dalembert fell into our laps here, but he did, which is ridiculous because he rebounds and blocks shots at a high clip and is a double-double threat every once in a while. With Brand, this was the home-run pick. By taking EB, I'm planning for the playoffs and winning the whole thing. He'll be stashed in the IR for a while.

12/13. Mike Conley Jr. (G - MEM)/Al Horford (FC - ATL) - Conley's a risky pick, but we needed another guard and if he stays healthy, I believe Marc Iavoroni will stick with him all season. He kind of has to now that he's already started the rookie. Benching him will only hurt Conley's progress in the long run. I'm not that high on Horford, but he has been the second most productive rookie so far, behind Kevin Durant, and he's another double-double threat on a good night.

14. Louis Williams - (G - PHI) - Lou's name here is just a formality. He was dropped right away because the pick was supposed to be Beno Udrih and the draft machine didn't draft correctly. Regardless of mistakes, Udrih is on the team now and will be for the next two weeks while Bibby is still out.

Honestly, I haven't been so confident in one of my teams since my 2005 team, "da king". That was a public league, but still... This team is absolutely ridiculous from top to bottom. I have double-doubles coming out of everywhere and any week Lebron decides to go off will just be painful for my opponent. Good luck to my opponents the rest of the season in weeks they aren't matched up against me.

Ok, this is a long blog post so I'm just going to note a few things I noticed tonight:

- Lebron one-upped Martell's performance last night with 25 points in the fourth quarter for the Cavs win over the Raps

- Washington completely dominated the Supes as Caron led the way and AD continued to show his capabilities as a PG filling in for Agent 0, who announced that he may be skipping the rest of this season to rest up for next season. Tough for owners who drafted Gil in the top 5 or at the least, top 10.

- The Spurs beat the Clips in Manu's return. Finley's scoring went down as expected, but he got his shots going just 1-10 for 3 points, but he did have 11 rebounds. Keep Finley for now since he does start, gets minutes and shoots well usually. Rookie Al Thornton had a good game, starting again even though Tim Thomas played in this one. Thornton had 17 pts, while Thomas had 7.

- Miami has the 2nd worst record in the league after losing at Memphis tonight. Wade returned from the bench, but it wasn't enough. Memphis won the game in the fourth quarter as Gasol and Rudy Gay led the way. Gay's becoming a great clutch player.

- Milwaukee beat Charlotte in Carolina. Charlie bell had the big game of 27 points, but you can't really take much out of this. It was a hot game off the bench. Nazr Mohammed had a decent game finally with 9 pts and 12 rebs off the bench. He played around 20 minutes, which probably doesn't mean much unless he can get more minutes again.

- In LaLa land, the Lakers put down the visiting Pacers. I paid more attention to Troy Murphy and Danny Granger since I just traded them away. Granger scared me in the first quarter with 11 pts and Murphy ended with 14 rebs so I'm not sure what to make of it yet. Dirk had 30 pts in his game earlier in the night. For the Lakers, it was all about the bench and the starters. The starters dominated the Pacers, while the bench was completely dominated by the Pacers. The starters were +27, the bench was -10. Bynum and Kobe dominated the inside and outside as both had big games. Kobe's statline wasn't amazing, 26 pts, but he was clutch and gave the Lakers a spark. Bynum was ridiculous with 23-13-3 blocks.

More Injuries

2008-01-05T20:23:00.001-08:00

Tonight's games were all pretty close and exciting. The biggest of which was Boston @ Detroit. Since these team last met, both have been undefeated since. Needless to say, this game was an opportunity for either team to show their supremacy in the East and maybe even the whole league. Boston pulled out the nailbiter in the fourth quarter with a 92-85 road win. No real fantasy implications in this one as both teams played hard.

I'm just going to list some of the absences and injuries I noted from Friday night:

Tracy McGrady is still out as the Rockets beat the Knicks like everyone else has. Aaron Brooks was the story in this game as he put up a career high 22 pts and played more minutes down the stetch than starter Luther Head, who played decently scoring 10 pts. The guard story continues to intrigue in Houston, especially with McGrady being out. Luis Scola scored double digits again and could be a decent option while Mcgrady's still hurt. On the Knick side, it doesn't look like David Lee will be starting again anytime soon as Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph have been starting games again. Curry had another decent scoring game, but with Curry that's really all you're going to get. Nate Robinson also had a big night with 25 pts, but Stephon Marbury's back so I expect him to start for the time being. I personally try to stay away from all Knick players because none of them are perennial fantasy options

Out of Chicago, Luol Deng missed his first game tonight after injuring his left achilles. Thabo Sefolosha was activated as a result. I don't think he'll be the benefactor, but Tyrus Thomas potentially could be. He almost had a double-double with 15 pts, 9 rebs as well as 3 blocks. He was hot toward the beginning of the season, but he's as streaky as any player in the league fantasy-wise. Note, Andris Nocioni was the one with the start in Deng's place and had a huge game (26 pts) and will have his production while Deng remains out, so at the end of Deng's injury, he could be a player you try to deal high. Sacramento looked at the same situation it's had all season with Bibby, Martin and Artest still out.

This one hurts...David West missed the NO@PHX game tonight with his bruised hip, and a couple of scary moments happened late with Mo Peterson taking a similar spill as West's last night and Chris Paul was hit in the face on a fast break. Both remained in the game in the fourth quarter as Chris Paul took over yet again on the road to lead his young Hornets team to a victory in a hostile environment. As expected Steve Nash and Paul put on a show for the Phoenix crowd, each having monster games, but it seems that late in games, Chris Paul trumps any player that's thrown at him. Something to look at, which I've been worrying about is Paul's minutes. He played the ENTIRE game tonight without a minute of rest as David West was injured and the Hornets' bench is already one of the worst in the league. These minutes are going to be a factor eventually. Jannero Pargo was the starter in West's place. He's shown in the past he can be a scorer given the minutes and he did just that tonight with 19 pts. He's a decent option if you need a guard and points for the time being. On Phoenix' side of the ball, Raja Bell started the game, but left after only 3 minutes of action with flu-like symptoms. He was actually sent home also. Leandro Barbosa and Marcus Banks filled in well with 28 pts and 11 pts, respectively. I wouldn't expect much from this since at worst, Bell will only be day-to-day.

In the Utah @ Portland matchup, Andrei Kirilenko was absent with back pain and CJ Miles replaced him in the starting lineup. Miles is a solid option as he's put up some good games as a reserve, but he doesn't do anything specularly so unless you are in a deep league, I'd look past Miles and check some of the bench players on Utah, including Paul Millsap, who's gotten regular minutes all season off the bench, and Kyle Korver, the newcomer who extends the court for the Jazz. Without AK-47, the Jazz will have to work harder on defense and Deron Williams will have to shoulder even more of the playmaking load. It's not known how long Kirilenko will be out for yet, but if he is to miss an extended period of time, which he has been known for, I would expect Deron's scoring to go down a bit, while his assist numbers go up. Role guys like Matt Harpring, CJ Miles and Kyle Korver will get more playing time and I'd expect them to score a bit more. On the Trailblazers side, I could write a paragraph on Martell Webster's game, but he scored a career high 26, including 20 pts in the third quarter as the blazers began their dominance of the Jazz in the second half. I don't know if this will create another string of great shooting games for Martell, but as a fantasy option, he'll give you scoring and not much more. Brandon Roy sustained a couple of injuries in the Thursday night game in Chicago, but he started the game, played ten minutes and didn't return to action in the second half. The fact that he felt okay to start this game should mean he'll be okay and not miss much time, if any time. In his absence however, Sergio Rodriguez was the benefactor in the fourth quarter, which he had not been playing in all season. Sergio is a high energy player who can spark the Blazer team, but I don't believe he'll be a factor fantasy-wise. If Roy is to miss time, Martell and Travis Outlaw would the biggest benefactors.

New Injuries

2008-01-05T12:05:00.000-08:00

As expected, Dwyane Wade missed his first game last night with his assortment of injuries. Wade is listed as Day-to-Day so if you've got a better option, stash Wade on your bench and start whoever you've got. Luol Deng also went down on Thursday night early and he's considered day-to-day as well. Michael Redd also missed his game last night against Washington with a bruised left thigh. He's day-to-day as well and likely to miss a couple of games. These guys were all high draft picks and with the exception of Wade, the other two guys have been healthy over their careers so it's probably not a big deal, just make some spot selections and spot some starters over the next week or so and you shouldn't suffer too bad.

Friday Night

2008-01-04T12:47:00.000-08:00

Huge night for fantasy hoops tonight, with 24 teams in action. Hopefully everyone's got their rosters set because if your match-up is still close, tonight is the make or break night of the week.

A few things to keep a eye on:

Hou @ Orl: whether or Carlos Arroyo keeps starting over Jameer Nelson, T-Mac is reportedly out another 7-10 days so keep close watch on Luther Head, Bonzi Wells, Luis Scola and perhaps even Aaron Brooks in deep leagues.

Atl @ Ind: Anthony Johnson has been struggling lately so check his PT and compare it to the young Acie Law IV's. Jamaal Tinsley is also still out and Andre Owens has been filling in solidly so take a flyer if you need 3's or steals.

Sac @ Cle: Sacramento's big three of injuries, Mike Bibby, Kevin Martin and Ron Artest are all out of this game, but due back sometime this month so ride John Salmons, Francisco Garcia and Beno Udrih while you still can, but deal them high while you still can. Out of the three producing, I think Udrih may be able to keep it up since Bibby's been the center of many trade rumors the past two seasons and this should be the season as the Kings should focus on rebuilding. Garcia and Salmons should figure their values to take a considerable hit once Artest and Martin return. On the Cavs' s side, watch Anderson Varejao's PT as it will adversely affect Zydrunas Ilgauskas' and Drew Gooden's production. Larry Hughes has also been back in the starting lineup while Daniel Gibson has been slotted back on the bench as a result. I don't think Larry will produce great numbers either way and Gibson should still play his 30 min/game so neither should be too affected by this move.

Mia @ Dal: Dwyane Wade might time again with finger and shoulder injuries. If so, the Heat might be done. On a fantasy standpoint though, this would increase the value of Ricky Davis and Chris Quinn since Jason Williams is still out with his own injury issues. In the 2006 finals match-up, Dallas comes in streaking after just beaten their rival Golden State Warriors. Their fantasy situation has been the same all season with Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard leading the way. Jason Terry, Devin Harris and maybe Erick Dampier in the deepest leagues are also ownable.

Phi @ LAL: Louis Williams is a great pickup right now if he's still available at this point in the season. Even though Andre Miller might not be shipped out, Williams' value increased with Kyle Korver leaving Philly for Utah. The Lakers are coming off a blowout loss against the Boston Celtics and Kwame Brown is now back. Andrew Bynum owners need to keep an eye on this playing time situation.

NO @ GSW: I'm going to this game tonight! It's also a huge fantasy game for me since Baron Davis, Al Harrington, Chris Paul and David West are all going to be factors in this game. Watch New Orleans' starters in this game as they've been playing big minutes lately since Byron Scott's bench has not been able to put points on the board at all. It's not a good sign if starters play such big minutes this early as it may have adverse effects come playoff time.

TRADE

2008-01-04T02:14:00.000-08:00

My blockbuster trade for Dirk just went through today. Admittedly, I gave up a lot with Al Harrington, Danny Granger and Troy Murphy to get Dirk, Shane Battier and DeSagana Diop. The inconsistency of Granger and Harrington was worth getting rid of for a perennial top five fantasy player in Nowitzki. Dirk will help me out in rebounding and Battier will prove a similar player as Granger, albeit not as good. Diop is a drop right away for me and I dropped him 5 minutes ago for Finley, who's having a ridiculous string of games since Manu went out. I understand Manu is due back soon, but Mike's still the starter...his minutes will be cut a bit and they won't need his scoring as much, which is his main value. I'm hoping for the best, but hell, Finley's a HUUGE upgrade over Diop, who's not producing anything at this point in the season.

SEA/PHX 1/3

2008-01-03T22:14:00.000-08:00

The game just ended with PHX winning 104-96. Phoenix struggled early in this game, but ended up pulling it out in the end against a very young Seattle team. Kevin Durant had a few chances down the stretch, but the game-ending moment was Durant dribbling the ball off of Raja Bell's foot with just seconds left, down 6 points. Durant finished the game with 28 pts and 7 rebs, a very solid game. Jeff Green had 14 pts and 5 rebs on 4-10 shooting, which is what I would expect from him from now on if he is to start. His numbers could be predicted to be around 13-14 ppg, 6-7 rpg, 2 asts, a block and a steal would not be farfetched. Pick him up people! Phoenix won the game the way a dominant power in the west should have. Amare Stoudemire had a monster 34 pt performance while also pulling down 11 rebs and 3 blks. Shawn Marion had a Marion-esque performance with 11 pts, 14 rebs, a 3, a stl and 2 blks. Nash added a double-double with 17 pts, 10 asts. Everyone played their roles in the PHX win.

A note in this game was Chris Wilcox, who was injured in the 1st half. He was already nursing a knee injury. This finger injury just adds to it. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3606/news;_ylt=Ao0lvBZvprvurFwU9FmF6IKkvLYF

Pick Up

2008-01-03T21:05:00.000-08:00

Just picked up Carlos Arroyo for Delonte West in Private League #2 "Cool Beans". Arroyo's been hot lately, starting for an injured Jameer Nelson and even since Nelson's been back. Arroyo will try to retain the starting job and if he's able to, he's definitely worth a look. Arroyo's mainly a scorer, but can definitely put up some solid assist and rebounding numbers given 30-35 minutes a game. Keep an eye out and if you've got an extra spot, pick him up.

Thursday 1/3/2008

2008-01-03T20:16:00.000-08:00

Only 3 games on the slate on Thursday night, 2 of which on TNT, including a double OT thriller in Chicago.

Ben Gordon and Brandon Roy showed crazy clutch performances down the stretch as the game was within 4 points for the entire 4th quarter and overtimes until the blazers finally won 115-109. Brandon Roy put up 25 pts, 6 rebs, 11 asts, 2 steals and a block with a 3 and 10-11 free throws. Needless to say, a sick fantasy performance. The blazer bench helped put it away with strong performances from Jarrett Jack (17 pts, 4 rebs, 5 asts) and Travis Outlaw (21 pts, 5 rebs). If either of these bench players are on the waiver wire in your leagues and you need some scoring, these guys can help from time to time. Outlaw on his potential down the line is a good option, while Jack will be a backup PG the rest of the way it seems. Jack has been better off the bench, however. On the bulls side, Gordon did all he could to try and get a W, but his 32 pts weren't enough. Joe Smith had a monster night also with 31 pts and 11 rebs. Smith might not be available in leagues anymore, but if he is, he makes a great pickup as he's been hot for the last few games. Hinrich is still struggling from the field, but I'd still keep him since the bulls are turning it around and I believe Kirk will as well. If you can get value for him, then obviously deal him, but with his struggles there's no reason to make a bad deal.

Spurs 77, Nuggets 80
This game was a Camby fest, as he put up 18 rebs and 4 blocks. He's staying healthy and producing like crazy. I didn't think he could put up another healthy season, but he's putting up numbers like the reigning DPOY - Keep riding him. Kenyon Martin put up a solid 7 blocks as well, but not much else, while the backup Nene had a relatively quiet night. If you can still get Nene off waivers, I would take a flyer since I don't believe in K-Mart's ability to remain healthy either. On the spurs side, Manu and Brent Barry remain sidelined while Michael Finley continues to put up great numbers (18 pts, 8 rebs with 3 threes tonight) in their absence. If you don't already have Finley, don't bother looking him up unless you need a spot start for the rest of the week, as Manu and/or Brent are quickly getting better, maybe as soon as next week. Tony Parker got blocked 7 times in this game, but still managed 20 pts, 9 asts on 8-19 shooting. Duncan struggled in this game, which is a big reason for the spurs' struggles, but his bad games are scarce so keep him in there.

I made a pickup in private league #1 during the PHX/SEA game, in which I picked up Jeff Green for Delonte West. West is a bench player on a crowded backcourt team, while Green has found himself a starting SF position on Seattle. Green has been good in his first couple of starts as well so go grab him if still available. He's a guy who can put up numbers in every category with no big weakness that will hurt you. As for the SEA guards, I personally wouldn't touch any of them. They've all been inconsistent during their careers. West is the best all-around player out of all of them, but he's coming off the bench with inconsistent minutes. Watching this game, Wilcox was injured in the first half (his finger I believe) and does not appear to be returning. He had been going through some injury issues before this incident anyways. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with him yet, at least until something comes out about his injury.

Phoenix looks to be struggling pretty bad with their shot in the early going, but being Phoenix, they always have an opportunity to make a comeback. At halftime, Watson has 11 pts, 5 asts, West is 0-2 and Ridnour hasn't gotten onto the floor...What do I know? Phoenix is only down 45-40. The Sonics are shooting 32.7% and the Suns 37.5%, but Sonics are far out-rebounding the Suns. It looks as though Wally Szczerbiak and Damien Wilkins will hurt most by Jeff Green's move to the starting lineup. Time to try and trade away or just plain drop these guys if you've got them. Wally only contributes scoring on a good night and Wilkins has been awful as of late. The Sonics have been very inconsistent, mostly due to their youth so with both teams struggling shooting, the Suns will probably pull this one out. It's what the great teams do.

Foye...Again

2008-01-03T15:57:00.000-08:00

That last post didn't quite contain the link so I'll sum it up in this one. Foye is reportedly feeling no pain and is currently practicing with the team. Coach Randy Wittman of the Minnesota Timberwolves believes Foye will be ready to play as soon as next week.

Again, sorry about the link, but it's a Yahoo! rumor source

Randy Foye

2008-01-03T15:46:00.001-08:00

Randy Foye NEWS

Just saw this and it's big news for the t-wolves and fantasy teams since Foye is one Minnesota's big-time performers. Foye is just one of many big name performers who have suffered long term injuries this season. Other players like Mike Bibby, Elton Brand, Gilbert Arenas need to also be looked at soon enough because the new year has arrived and many of these player are beginning to heal.

Anyways, if Foye is out on some of your waiver wires or FA pools, go snatch him up soon because he should be an instant starter on Wittman's young squad.

Private Basketball Teams

2008-01-03T14:31:00.000-08:00

Without further ado, here are my basketball teams:
*Note: All leagues are H2H, I decided not to participate in any Rotisserie leagues this season

Private League #1 (10 teams, 16 roster spots, 6 teams make playoffs):
*"Fantasy 07-08" - 11 category league: FGM, FG%, FTM, FT%, 3PTM, PTS, REB, AST, STL, BLK, TO

Chris Paul (PG) - NOH
Baron Davis (PG) - GSW
Antonio Daniels (PG) - WASH
Delonte West (PG, SG) - SEA
Joe Johnson (PG, SG) - ATL
Rajon Rondo (PG, SG) - BOS
Ronnie Brewer (SG, SF) - UTAH
Danny Granger (SF, PF) - IND
Yi Jianlian (PF) - MILW
David West (PF) - NOH
Troy Murphy (PF, C) - IND
Mehmet Okur (PF, C) - UTAH
Sean Williams (PF, C) - NJN
Al Harrington (PF, C) - GSW
Nene (PF, C) - DEN
Yao Ming (C) - HOU

*Current Postion: 2nd place, 8 games back from 1st (LW: 8-3)
*Trade pending (until 01/05/2008) : Danny Granger, Al Harrington, Troy Murphy -FOR- Dirk Nowitzki, Shane Battier, DeSagana Diop

Private League #2 (12 teams, 16 roster spots, 6 teams make playoffs):
*"Cool Beans" - 11 category league: FGM, FG%, FTM, FT%, 3PTM, PTS, REB, AST, STL, BLK, TO

Beno Udrih (PG) - SAC
Antonio Daniels (PG) - WASH
Rajon Rondo (PG, SG) - BOS
Louis Williams (PG, SG) - PHI
Joe Johnson (PG, SG) - ATL
Raymond Felton (PG, SG) - CHA
Delonte West (PG, SG) - SEA
Luol Deng (SG, SF) - CHI
Marvin Williams (SG, SF) - ATL
Josh Smith (SG, SF, PF) - ATL
Jeff Green (SF, PF) - SEA
Shawn Marion (SF, PF) - PHX
David West (PF) - NOH
Nene (PF, C) - DEN
Nazr Mohammed (C) - CHA
Brad Miller (C) - SAC

*Current Position: 8th place, 7 games out of 6th (playoff) and 18 games out of 1st (LW: 8-3)

Private League #3 (10 teams, 16 roster spots, 6 teams make playoffs):
*"Fantastic Hoops" - 11 category league: FG%, FT%, 3PTM, PTS, OREB, DREB, AST, STL, BLK, TO, A/T

Baron Davis (PG) - GSW
Beno Udrih (PG) - SAC
Antonio Daniels (PG) - WASH
Ben Gordon (SG) - CHI
Michael Finley (SG, SF) - SAS
Ronnie Brewer (SG, SF) - UTAH
Peja Stojakovic (SG, SF) - NOH
Marvin Williams (SG, SF) - ATL
Vince Carter (SG, SF) - NJN
Josh Smith (SG, SF, PF) - ATL
Lamar Odom (SF, PF) - LAL
Dirk Nowitzki (PF) - DAL
Sean Williams (PF, C) - NJN
Chris Wilcox (PF, C) - SEA
Mehmet Okur (PF, C) - UTAH
Nazr Mohammed (C) - CHA

*Current Position: 2nd place, 5.5 games out of 1st (LW: 9-1-1)

Public League (12 teams, 13 roster spots, 6 teams make playoffs):
*"Yahoo Public 44203" - Yahoo! default public league 9 categories

Antonio Daniels (PG) - WASH
Kirk Hinrich (PG, SG) - CHI
Joe Johnson (PG, SG) - ATL
Cuttino Mobley (SG) - LAC
Marvin Williams (SG, SF) - ATL
Michael FInley (SG, SF) - SAS
Stephen Jackson (SG, SF) - GSW
Tayshaun Prince (SF) - DET
Lamar Odom (SF, PF) - LAL
Danny Granger (SF, PF) - IND
Chris Bosh (PF, C) - TOR
Sean Williams (PF, C) - NJN
Dwight Howard (C) - ORL

*Current Position: 5th place, 6 games out of 1st place (LW: 6-3)

First Post

2008-01-03T14:09:00.000-08:00

So I've decided to give blogging a tryout to see how I like it and fantasy sports is the subject matter in which I am most interested and am most knowledgeable about. So from now on I will post all transactions I make in all my fantasy leagues beginning with this one in which I reveal my rosters for my basketball teams. I generally only play fantasy on Yahoo! fantasy, but if you play on a different website, let me know and I would check out anything new if you have good things to say about it!

The fantasy football season just ended so this will be mostly about basketball until baseball season is around the corner. In my fantasy football leagues, which I was involved in four leagues, I finished 1st, 1st, 2nd and 5th, two private leagues with friends (1st and 5th) and 2 public leagues (1st and 2nd). You can look me up in the Yahoo! fantasy profiles under user-name tianaustin88. Thanks for checking me out!