Friday Night Lite
Friday’s preseason slate was full of “That would be cool if it actually counted”-type games: Jazz/Pistons, Mavs/Bulls, Cavs/Sonics, Heat/Magic — too bad it’s still early October and no coach is going to play his VIPs that much … Dwight Howard is reaching the point where he consistently doesn’t have to score to control games. He had EIGHT blocks on the Heat last night in a little over 20 minutes of work plus an easy 13 points and 10 boards. Five of Dwight’s swats came in the first quarter, where he was sending Zo and Haslem‘s stuff to the frank man … Not that Dwight was facing the toughest comp in the world; we’ve talked about Miami’s D-League level preseason lineup without Shaq, Wade and the rest, and last night they were terrible. Eight minutes into the game, Miami was stuck on 2 points. They ended up with 69 for the night and almost got 40-pieced … J.J. Redick has gone from a faux hawk to an all-out mohawk. Orlando will be on national TV next week while they’re playing in China, so you can see it then. Seeing J.J. with the mohawk might be as jarring as when we saw Josh McRoberts rocking the Grizzly Adams this summer at the Rookie Photo Shoot … Seattle/Cleveland was worth watching for the LeBron vs. Kevin Durant matchup, but it kinda fell flat. ‘Bron left the game with a shoulder injury (nothing too serious) and KD went 5-for-22 from the field. Even if Durant ultimately runs away with Rookie of the Year (which isn’t a stone-cold lock), rest assured he is gonna have some awful shooting nights. Every rookie goes through a period where they struggle with their shot, and KD has so much leeway in Seattle’s offense that he’s bound for an Iverson Special or two. Durant did have 7 boards and 2 steals, though … Like we said after catching “Real Training Camp” the other day, the Nets are kinda garbage once you get past J-Kidd, Vince and RJ. All three of them sat out last night against Philly — who isn’t even good at full strength. So the less-than-half-full Wachovia Center was treated to Boki Nachbar and Louis Williams doing a re-enactment of Larry Bird vs. Dominique Wilkins. Nachbar dropped 35 points while Williams went for 33 … We’ll believe it when we see it, but Nellie is swearing he’s only going to play Baron Davis about 28-30 minutes a night this year to keep him healthy for the playoffs … Did we already say J.R. Smith is a lock to get traded? He didn’t even play against the Blazers last night, giving his minutes up to Von Wafer and Yakhouba Diawara … You think maybe the Cavs could use J.R.? Their designated shooter, Damon Jones, wants out. “By no stretch of the imagination am I happy,” Damon said. Neither is the team that signed you … After Allan Houston‘s first Knicks practice, Isiah was laying on the praise thick: “He could still shoot the ball,” Isiah told reporters. “He’s probably one of the Top 10 best shooters to ever play in our sport. So he’ll be able to shoot the ball when he’s 60 years old.” Top 10? Seems a little high … And H20 isn’t even one of the main reasons our in-house Knicks fans are so pumped this year. They’re seriously talking about Steph and Isiah landing in the NBA Finals … It’s never a good sign when you’re supposedly 100 percent healthy on NBA Draft night but still end up having surgery before your first game (read: Greg Oden). That’s where Spencer Hawes is now, as he had his knee scoped this week. Over/under on games that Hawes plays this year? We’ll go with 62 and take the under … We’re out like scoring on Dwight …
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October 13th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Amar says:
nice mention of the jazz beating the pistons by 15 . . . fesenko had another two blocks, brewer had another good showing (even hit a three), the jazz are a good young team. they didn’t do a lot of stuff during the off-season because they didn’t have to. yes, it’s appropriate to blow up a team that can’t get out of the first round with two all-nba types on it (see: Rockets, Houston). no, you don’t add 8 new faces to a team that went to the west finals where no one in their starting 5 is over 30 (see: Jazz, Utah).
Rox getting lots of press right now.
October 13th, 2007 at 11:41 am
sans says:
Danny Ferry was an overpaid player with limited skills, and right now, he’s an idiot GM with limited skills. JR might look nice in wine-and-gold, but Big Z is not getting any younger and Varejao should have his spot soon. The question on my mind: Is Jr any better than Pavlovic? Both think they can hit from anywhere, and neither should be given a free reign to rain jumpers. Who would you pick?
An even better question…do you think that NBA ref’s should be given the green light to start throwing T’s around whenever they see an obvious flop? As an official, I think they should. I am starting to see high school kids do it, and that’s appalling.
October 13th, 2007 at 11:54 am
IGP says:
If Damon Jones demands a trade I’m going to have to consider not watching basketball ever again…
October 13th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Bron42 says:
lol I remember in high school we would do the “take a charge while not getting knee’d in the balls drill” and kids were takin flops then, so its not surprising. Specially when you got guys like manu and varejeo doing it like its a piece of art. Why not bounce JR smith for shannon brown and a draft pic to the cavs? So how much before everyone starts jumping on louis williams jock again until he doesn’t even play during the season and they sign some old vet? Hes got serious dejuan wagner syndrom. where you kill in all the games that dont count but then do nothing when the season comes
October 13th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Austin Burton says:
I doubt Cleveland would trade Shannon Brown; they really like him. Not that he’s untouchable, but they wouldn’t unload him for a risk (as in he probably wears out his welcome in 1-2 years) like JR Smith
October 13th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Bron42 says:
true but shannon has never really been known as much of a shooter, and supposedly (ignoring all the other glaring holes) thats what cavs fans seem to think the team needs most. And JR will gladly shoot, and shoot and shoot some more.
October 13th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
doc says:
if lou williams dont play this year he has no hope but i think this his year to step it up Monta Ellis did it last year. Let him play lets see what he can do. It aint like he dont got no talent they was just treating him like a youngin. Damon Jones just need to shut the hell up because he stealing money. And Lebron probaly dont want JR what is he really bringin to the table besides nice dunks.
October 13th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Bron42 says:
His dunks are nicer than lebrons and he can hit from the outside. Louis was more hyped than monta in high school even though monta was averagin 40. But Louis style don’t really translate well to the nba. He aint got the body to bang, hes not super athletic enough to sky over people, all he has is quickness and teams can catch on to that eventually. Hes nice for a high school player but he aint iverson
October 15th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
D-Lite says:
Wagner syndrome..what was the Leon Wood syndrome??
October 16th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
Kudabeen says:
Bron42…Really? Louis Williams is not Athletic enought to Sky over people?
It’s hard to do anything in games that matter when your team never plays in games that matter…Lou plays well when he gets time on the floor period. I think he is way better then Monta Ellis. Better. But We’ll see if he gets the 20+ mins he should get on the sixers team this year. Monta is a reluctant scorer, that only seems to feed off the confidence of the players around him. Lou forces the issue and trys to rally the troops. But He has to get PT before I can really make my point. So I’ll leave it at…We will see.
Not much out there yet, but Williams has some posters already:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVQ2C93Pd6U