Photo. Jonathan MannionJust like we expected, the Cavs looked like a real NBA team once LeBron stepped back onto the court last night. Coming off the bench against the Pacers (”One and done,” he called it afterwards. “I will not be coming off the bench anymore.”), ‘Bron put up 17 points and 5 assists in 22 minutes of Cleveland’s win. No, he didn’t play a lot, and yes, Larry Hughes‘ 36 points were more than instrumental, but just having that added confidence/swagger LeBron brings (Not to mention a legit offensive threat) was enough … Tuesday also marked the return of Anderson Varejao (6 pts, 9 rebs) — seemingly heavier than the last time we saw him and rocking worse-looking hair. LeBron later admitted that he wanted to enter the game at the same time as Varejao so the Cleveland crowd wouldn’t boo … Someone in the office described LeBron’s padded glove as a “Michael Jackson glove.” … We thought Tim Duncan was going to return last night for San Antonio’s game against Golden State, but Pop’s game-time decision was that Duncan sit it out. Right before tip, one of the Warriors announcers put it out there that Baron Davis and Co. were a more dangerous matchup for the Duncan-less Spurs than the Jazz and Mavs, and it turns out he was right: GS ran all over the Spurs, putting on a transition clinic in what was a 20-piecing at times, naturally making our #1 ranking for the Spurs in this week’s NBA Hit List (posted before the game) look bad … This despite Matt Bonner playing the game of his life, putting up 25 points and 17 boards. Bonner’s shot is ugly, but it goes in; it’s not a good idea to leave him wide open like the Warriors did regularly … Is Yao Ming soft? Are the rest of the Rockets soft? Yesterday we told you about Yao’s potentially inflammatory comments in the media, which are of course easy to blow off as the pot calling the kettle black. But it’s not like once you’re one thing you have to stay that way. If Yao has toughened up and is ready to be a take-charge leader, he’s only going to shed that “soft” label by doing things like this. And more importantly, by showing and proving. We’ll see how he plays over this upcoming stretch: Detroit, Dallas, Orlando, Denver, Chicago and Detroit again over the next two weeks … For much of Jazz/Blazers, Nate McMillan thoroughly out-coached Jerry Sloan. Nate had the Blazers laying back in a tight zone, daring the Jazz to hit jumpers — which they couldn’t. The packed-in defense negated the flex offense Sloan runs, and the chances for Carlos Boozer (29 pts, 13 rebs) to roll down the lane and wreak havoc (which could have gotten ugly since LaMarcus Aldridge wasn’t playing) were limited. Well, except for one time when Booz got a head of steam from the top of the key and almost killed poor Martell Webster, who was trying to take a charge … Meanwhile, the Blazers were raining J’s: Martell (25 pts, 5 treys), Steve Blake, Jarrett Jack — they were all hitting … C.J. Miles got some burn and took 7 shots in 9 minutes in the first half. He might have touched the ball a total of 7 times during that span, too, going on some real Capt. Jack Sparrow stuff … Very scary moment in Atlanta when T.J. Ford got hit going to the rack and had his head take a hard bounce off the floor. T.J. laid on the court motionless and eventually had to be carried off on a stretcher. Chris Bosh’s post-game quote captured what everyone was thinking: “It turns my stomach because of who it is,” Bosh said. Very true. If it’s Anthony Parker in that exact same situation, you’re probably not as worried. Or like whenever Amare or Kenyon Martin breaks into a limp, you start thinking of those microfractures. Last we heard, Ford was going to stay at the hospital overnight … When the Dime crew hit up Mavs/Knicks at the Garden the other night, we had a sit-down with Josh Howard and Jason Terry, where they talked about life on the road and what it’s like being targeted by other teams. J-Ho also reflects on his 47-point explosion on Utah, while Jet talks about his record label and clothing line … See this? Much more entertaining that Detroit’s drubbing of the Grizzlies last night. Chauncey and Rip are so much better than so many backcourts out there, the Pistons will be contenders as long as they’re together … We’re out like ignoring Bonner …
December 12th, 2007 at 5:01 am
H says:
Stoopid Yao..he is so danm soft i h8 him
he shud avg 20 boards a game
if dwight had yaos body hed prolly get 40 a game
hope TJ gets beatter hes one of the better points out there
1
December 12th, 2007 at 5:03 am
urban library says:
wow…WOW…no talk of my bulls’ ASS WHIPPIN of the sonics? no matter they played arguably the worst team in the L, it still could be of great importance to their confidence.
December 12th, 2007 at 5:53 am
jnuh says:
Al Horford is a douche bag.
December 12th, 2007 at 5:59 am
len-e says:
J-Ho!?? C’mon guys!
December 12th, 2007 at 6:05 am
B.A. says:
LeBron is outstanding.
http://www.squidoo.com/LebronJamesDunk
December 12th, 2007 at 6:08 am
YOUNGFED says:
yah u guys can do better than freaking J-Ho.
December 12th, 2007 at 6:11 am
YOUNGFED says:
If the pistons are so much better than all these other guys why aren’t they ranked higher. Quit hating on my pistons. Don’t hate the players hate the game.
December 12th, 2007 at 6:23 am
waiting2repeat says:
Matt freakin’ Bonner leads with 25 points!!
Tim Duncan, please come back!
December 12th, 2007 at 7:21 am
absurd says:
Matt Boner is a legit star in the nba, the Red Rocket should be starting on the Spurs, maybe even over Tim Duncan. My boy Matt Boner is coming into his own, and getting the press that he needs to prove that the Spurs are an unstoppable team, and will probably put 3 guys onto the All Star team.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:21 am
celtssincehavelchik says:
waiting-
you don’t have to wait. they’ve already repeated. they win one, then they dont. win one, then they dont. its the circle of life. im out like winnin two in a row in san antonio
ps props to g state for doin it tonight. remember to watch b.d. on youtube on ak at least once a week.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:44 am
MD says:
Get well TJ…
December 12th, 2007 at 10:04 am
SWAT says:
Absurd-your entire comment is absurd. Matt Bonner start over Tim Duncan. Man you must be on some blue magic or something if you seriously think that!
Like I told yall last week Yao has been getting after his boys to step up and now especially with Mac’s ankle hurt I would love to see Yao be a beast, even if it is only in glimpses. When Yao first came into the league he would have never got after his team like that, hopefully this will lite some sort of fire under them because this is embarrassing.
December 12th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Brown says:
jnuh:
Horford didn’t mean to hit Ford in the head. It was a bang-bang play and he was trying to swat the ball. It was just an accident, be it an unfortunate one. If you watched Horford’s reaction, you could tell that he didn’t hit him in the head on purpose. He doesn’t have a reputation for being a dirty player, so don’t hold it against him. The whole Hawks team looked genuinely concerned actually, and Mike Woodson even went to the Raptors locker room afterward and told Sam Mitchell that their prayers were with TJ.
December 12th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Tom from Cleveland says:
LeBron’s new nickname with the glove? “Thriller”
December 12th, 2007 at 10:21 am
Kobeef says:
Matt Barnes is BACk - 16pts, 8reb, 3 steals, 2 blocks!
Could/should Ben Gordon become a Billups-like starting PG in the league instead of playing SG on the bulls? I think so. Nice game from him last night with 6 assists and 0 turnovers.
Darko didn’t get to make much of a statement in his re-match with the pistons - 12pts was more than we’ve seen from him in a while but 0 blocks and 3 boards is weak.
Dumb move by Horford - you just don’t pull that crap on a guy with an injury history like TJ.
The blazers are seriously screwing up their lottery chances if they keep this “all out effort” crap going….
December 12th, 2007 at 10:30 am
absurd says:
SWAT,
You are just hating on Boner because hes white. The chances of a career 9-10th man coming into his own and being better than one of the best powerforwards in history are slim…but possible. Just believe in my boy.
Next HOF watch: Matt Boner
December 12th, 2007 at 10:43 am
bliz289 says:
jnuh, maybe you’re the douchebag. Horford went to the hospital last night to talk to TJ Ford. classy move. it was obvious he wasn’t trying to hurt him.
December 12th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Celts Fan says:
horford definitely wasn’t trying to hurt him.
any chance the Spurs would trade Bonner for Scalabrinie if we paid Scal’s salary and gave up a #2? ya, didn’t think so…
December 12th, 2007 at 10:59 am
Alf says:
I have PVR (the equivlant of TiVo here in Canada) and taped the Raptors’ game. Watched that TJ Ford hit a couple of times just to see what the hell Al was thinking.
I’ve since lost a lot of respect for the Gator Champion. You think that coming from a program where he won TWO NCAA championships and having his team targeted throughout the second run he would know a thing or two about hard hits.
I’m not saying he was is a class-less / cheap guy; but just that he would exhibit better common sense in that scenario. He was beat, plain and simple on that drive and the game (at that point) was pretty much decided with a Raps Win. It looked like he was doing it for the sake of doing something. And worst of all, the way he swung his arm looked like he had no intent of going after TJ’s body at all, simple a slap on the head - WWE style.
December 12th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Bron42 aka Global4Areason says:
did you see horford in the post game? it was like he was about to cry sayin he was sorry. You kno him and you kno he wasn’t tryin to hurt anyone, it wasn’t even really a hard foul. See wasted comments like this are what make forums stupid. cuz we all kno the kid aint serious but hes gonna keep postin like he is lol. Matt bonner over duncan? I’d take a wheel chaired duncan in the post any day over bonner.
Hughes puts up bucktes but on espn they don’t show one highlight lol. You woulda thought lebron scored 80 as many clips of him as they showed.
j-ho? couldn’t we get a j-heezy or something lol.
December 12th, 2007 at 11:23 am
mavid says:
Anyone hating on Horford about this one is being childish. He went for the block, got beat and misjudged it badly. He wasnt trying to hurt him… it was obvious. He really is a great kid who is probably still feeling sick to his stomach about the whole thing. The fact that he went to the hosptial and waited for hours to personally speak to TJ says a lot.
But yeah, get well TJ! I absolutely hated seeing that one happen.
December 12th, 2007 at 11:26 am
isotope says:
If Yao had Dwight’s body, he’d be unstoppable. Just think; Dwight with range, post up game, and good free throw shooting.
If Dwight had Yao’s body he’d still be bricking FTs and wouldnt be able to get up and block shots (w/o getting called for fouls) or dunk on fools all day.
Yao is more slow than soft. You can almost blame it on his frame but theres a lot of games he gets on my nerves as well.
December 12th, 2007 at 11:46 am
FK in Toronto says:
Alf - you sure you watched it? A few times?? Damn kid, get glasses.
Horford got beat (like a red-headed step child) and swung where he thought the ball was going to be. Also, they were stuck 8 with 2 minutes to play, the game was far from over. Simmer down chump.
Prayers out to TJ and praise out to Bonner…
December 12th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Gee says:
Ya bark was loud, but yo bite wasn’t vicious and them rhymes you was saying, were quite bootylicious.
LOL! Do not mess with Al “The Tyrant” Horford! This is the first warning. Naw just kidding, I am sure he didn’t mean to do it.
I am sure TJ will come back just fine.
Since we do a lot of if’s on here, I want to throw mine in there.
If T-Mac had Shaq’s body oh my gosh it would be such a conclusion on the wholeleague. Crazy right. Exactly.
I don’t care how many points Hughes scores LeBron still needs to get out of there with the quickness. He gone K.G. his career if he ain’t careful. Then again K.G. might get him one finally this year, still all those waisted years. Sad.
Matt who?
Ming ain’t trippin, 82 games haters.
Warriooorssss come out and plaaaaaayyy….and dang they sure did!
December 12th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Bron42 says:
ya for real, why would dwight want yaos body? lol, sure yao is tall but dwight already out jumps him so it doesnt really matter. plus yao is easily top 5 slowest guys in the league lol.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
The Jet says:
If Nate Robinson had Shaq’s body, he would be Olden Polynice
December 12th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
ian says:
bron
there is an article on espn.com about d.howard being the best big man right now even over duncan and garnett LOL. you have to go read it to see how many people(idiots) think howard is better than td and kg is just fuckin hilarious. there where comments about duncan being overrated and that he aint that good, how howard has dominated the head to head matchups this season agains td and kg(just one game which duncan still won). and my fav on that if you traded duncan for howard the spurs would be better LOL. go read it youll laugh your ass off.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
SWAT says:
Absurd you need to be easy. No one is hating on Bonner cuz’ he’s white. I love the spurs and I do like the Oppie Cunnigham look alike but dime stated that he played the game of his life-25 and 17. Timmy does that on a reg…i was responding to the comment you wrote that he should be starting over Duncan. That was just a dumb comment and you probably should stop typing.
Bron are you telling me Kwame Brown, Eric Dampier, Eddy Curry, Z Ilgauskas, Andrew Bogut are all faster than Yao? I think not!
December 12th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
dagwaller says:
Seriously, Swat. You will notice that if Yao goes 10 and 20, some guys on here will say that he doesn’t score enough, and if he goes 20 and 10, he doesn’t rebound enough. “He’s 7′6″!” Like jnuh said yesterday, if things were based on height, Manute Bol, Shawn Bradley and Gheorge Muresan would be the greatest of all time. Out of shape? Like I said yesterday, he ranks among the elite centers in ppg AND boards and blocks, AND mpg. And there are no responses to those facts, either, you’ll notice. Other than the Magic and the Suns, do you think there’s a team out there that WOULDN’t take Yao? Nope, didn’t think so.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
nick says:
horford was going for the ball and once he fouled him the look on his face was what have i done. Like he was not trying to hurt tj. so for those saying that he did it intentionally are way off base.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Doc says:
I dont think you dudes ever played ball who is coming at Horford for a natural play that happens when two guys are hustling sometimes. He should have let TJ score because of his injury history are you serious. He got hit by a bigger player in the fuckin head by mistake thats it. And soon as Manu get somebody to step up in his chest and play D Bonner the man now. He only was the scorer for 3 games hes tired already? Franchise player my ass.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Myrie in NY says:
Yao is as good now as he is ever going to be. He is not going to hit some special stride in his 9th season. You either except what he gives you now….or you don’t.
As for the foolish comment posted above about Matt Bonner starting over Tim Duncan…..bah. I don’t even know what to say to that lame. ‘absurd’….your just plain ole wrong. Bonner should count his blessings that he’s not in the D-League.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Bron42 aka Global4Areason says:
Ian why was that directed at me? lol I’ve never said howard was better than duncan or Kg. I say dwight is the best center, both of those guys are PF.
Swat: ya, outside of Big Z I’d say all of those guys are faster than yao.
Dag: Jnuh mad the point about manute and those guys and liek i responded then, none of those guys were considered good, let alone great so sayin hes better than them doesn’t mean much. All of them game to the league just cuz of their size. Yao came with wayyy more hype than that. Also you say he ranks among elite centerS? theres like 3 elite centers in the nba right now lol Hes STILL 11th and 8th on some of the most important stats a center can have. Lastly saying teams other than the suns and magic would take him doesnt mean much either considering guys like kevin willis, scott pollard etc… all make roster spots and their not that good either. you point out how yao is like #10 in stats but overlook its one of the weakest crops of centers ever so if anything that makes yao look worse. yao could be shawn bradleys twin skill wise and he’d still get picked up just cuz his size. Yao is the anti-Kg. He has ok numbers, but no on court leadership(although this shout out could change that), doesn’t really CHANGE/control the game like other nba great centers and is technically a career loser also but no one blames him, they just put it on steve francis or tmac meanwhile in every playoff loss dating back to yao’s rookie year, the other teams PF averages like career highs on him.
I agree hes probably hit his ceiling so we shouldn’t really expect some explosion of progress.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
ian says:
bron just cuz just like kg
December 12th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
dagwaller says:
Ha, Bron, you’re ignoring all the points AGAIN. Like I said yesterday, those stats they posted were off, so there’s that. Second of all, the point he’s trying to make is that when YOU keep saying “he should be better cause he’s tall”, it doesn’t make ANY sense - which you just conceded, I guess. Yea, he came with a lot of hype - because he’s Chinese. There were other guys just as tall that didn’t have as much hype - like Bradley.
And exactly - there’s 3 elite centers, and he’s one of them. I still don’t understand what everyone wants. Do they want him to be as good as Shaq? I mean, that’d be nice for him, because Shaq was one of the greatest of all time. How about Robinson and Ewing and Hakeem? Ditto, some of the greatest of all time. Stop comparing him to them - he’s not going to measure up. TODAY, though, he’s one of the best. Like you guys were saying for Rock Richmond - he was one of the best when there weren’t that many great SGs, and you say he should be in the HOF. I’m not even going that far with Yao, just that he’s an elite center TODAY.
Also, no one’s “putting” anything on Franchise or T-Mac - it’s just that they’re “career losers” too. Except that they lose everywhere they go. At least Yao doesn’t bitch out of his situation - just trying to make it better, and you guys bust on him. It’s sad, really.
December 12th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Ian says:
dagwaller i have to agree with everything u said
like everyone said that houston lost because of yao only last season like tmac won before coming to houston and now hes losing cuz of yao
please
December 12th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Keith says:
GS showed off the number one way to beat the Spurs (on the defensive end). Pressure the ball and play the passing lanes rather than the players. The Spurs normally don’t move too much except to find their spot for their jumpshot when the defense collapses on penetration (or Duncan post-up). Teams can force a lot of turnovers by laying back and waiting for the kickout. In the second half, Pop switched up the offense to include a lot of double-screens to free up jumpshots on passes coming from outside the lane. It wasn’t enough, and that’s not really anyone’s game except Finley’s.
The other way to beat the Spurs is a little more risky. It involves triple-teaming anyone coming near the lane. Leave shooters open and hope the Spurs have a worse shooting night than you do.
I don’t want to meet Don Nelson in the playoffs.
December 12th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Ian says:
keith sorry man
the spurs win the series in 2 if they meet in the playoffs
and if they do that shit of laying back duncan goes for 40 everynight vs the warriors
you think that the warriors solved something the league hasnt been able to figure out in 10 years because of one regular season (without duncan) win. puh please
December 12th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Ian says:
don nelson in the playoffs big deal
December 13th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
Keith says:
Ian, I’ve watched 95% of the Spurs’ games for the last 3 years and I’m just saying that nearly every time they lose, it’s because of one of those two methods of defending them. It’s not that Don Nelson has figured anything new out. He’s just willing to risk getting blown out if his players aren’t quicker than the passes. Most coaches don’t change their defense because help and rotation is the best way to defend most teams since there is a lot of movement and screening in most offenses. People say that Don Nelson makes teams adjust to him, but that’s only his offense. He always adjusts his defense to the team he’s facing.
December 13th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
Ian says:
i know he does that
but has it ever worked for him in the playoffs