O.J. Mayo, Dime #17Seattle’s last NBA star was the story of Tuesday’s preseason slate, while the city’s potential next big star was right up there with him on the marquee. Kevin Durant went bananas at the tail-end of the OKC Thunder’s first win, dropping 20 points in the last eight minutes of the fourth quarter to finish with 26 points against the T-Mac-less Rockets. Durant also had five boards, four dimes, four steals and three blocks, and despite playing the last minute or so with an ankle injury, shook it off to knock down some daggers … If you haven’t seen Durant in action yet this year, he looks to have added some muscle onto his frame, which will only make him a bigger problem for whomever on the other side is trying to stick him. Another guy who obviously spent some time in the gym getting some meat on his bones is Aaron Brooks; he put up 20 points off the bench — plus a pretty sweet alley-oop finish out of the halfcourt set from Brent Barry — and once again outplayed Rafer Alston. Sooner than you think, Brooks will be challenging for Skip’s job, and that’s when Skip’s mounting history of off-the-court incidents will come back to bite him in the ass. We’ve been down with Skip for the longest and we don’t wanna see him hung out to dry like Jamaal Tinsley, so he needs to step his game up ASAP and keep Brooks off his heels … Chris Wilcox (13 pts, 14 rebs) had the obligatory YouTube dunk on Yao (15 pts, 16 rebs, 3 blks) that ended with Yao hanging his head as he ran down to the other end, looking like he was trying to blend his 7-foot-12 frame into the background. Going into his seventh NBA season — yes, it’s been that long — Yao might be catching up to Shawn Bradley in the getting-dunked-on stat book … If Gary Payton is right and Seattle gets another NBA team by 2011, the Grizzlies would be a front-runner. O.J. Mayo led the way for the Grizz yesterday, stamping 26 points and five steals on the Pacers, including six treys. After going 2-for-14 beyond the arc in his previous exhibition games, O.J. was 6-for-8 yesterday. We’ve seen it dating back to O.J.’s high school days; he can get copious buckets even on an off day, but when his long-ball is working, he’s pretty much unstoppable. The Pacers tried holding O.J. with Jarrett Jack, who started at two-guard next to T.J. Ford. They combined for 35 points (18 for Ford; 17 for Jack). Running those two at the same time in the backcourt would work better than a Ford/Jose Calderon combo would have worked in Toronto, because Jack — although O.J. shot his face off on Monday — is at least strong enough to defend other two-guards … In a true battle of the titans, Roy Hibbert had 17 points, nine boards and three blocks for Indy, while Marc Gasol put up 14 and 10 boards in their head-to-head. You know, if USA Basketball still sent college kids to the Olympics, Hibbert vs. Gasol might have been one of the key matchups of the U.S./Spain game. And Hibbert’s crew would have gotten smashed … Give the Bobcats this much: they didn’t look as terrible last night against Atlanta as they had in their first two preseason games, but Charlotte still couldn’t find their way into the win column. Acie Law, who was playing in place of injured Mike Bibby (ab strain) hit a game-winning layup with 4.5 seconds left for the Hawks, who got 17 points from Joe Johnson and 16 from Josh Smith. Larry Brown definitely wasn’t throwing a party afterward, but he was generally positive about the loss. Although his team has played like crap so far, LB has been getting lapped by Phil Jackson in the “Passive-Aggressive Douchey Comments Before Opening Night” race. It’s really no contest … Phil’s preoccupation with making Lamar Odom look like a bum (maybe he’s just trying to drive down L.O.’s market value so the Lakers can re-sign him cheap?) seemed headed for a bad ending, but yesterday Odom did his version of taking the high road, blaming the discontent on his alter-ego. Hey, at least he’s trying … In case you missed it yesterday, we posted an excerpt from the Dime #44 cover story on Gilbert Arenas. In it, Gil talks about the perception that he’s a ball-hog and how he decided to pattern his career after Shaq’s … On the same day we learned ESPN/ABC hired Magic Johnson for it’s in-studio team, we found out Comcast fired Bob Cousy from his announcing position with the Celtics. How do you fire Bob Cousy? The basketball gods are gonna do bad things to whoever made that call … We’re out like Bibby …
October 14th, 2008 at 3:31 am
newkon says:
thanks very good
October 14th, 2008 at 3:34 am
M says:
Don’t think yao ming gets that much dunks over him. Just whenever it happens you see it 0239209440324903 times.
October 14th, 2008 at 3:57 am
boris says:
Say what you like about PJax, but the only person driving down LO’s value is LO. He has been looking like a pot-addled deer in some headlights for far too many seasons now.
October 14th, 2008 at 4:32 am
smity far away says:
i thought you all been knew about cousy getting fired. There was a link to the espn story a few days ago on nba.com. Cousy sounded pretty cool about the whole thing though.
yao does hang his head a lot. it’s probably his second most popular signature move. 1st in my book would be the seemingly effortless (not a lot of jumping involved) dunk where he lets out a yell and gets a few of his teammates to stand from the bench urging him to remain fired up.
“O.J. did it”- Maybe you all used it a bit prematurely (unless you were worried about some other news writer using it first at this level of his career) being that it’s the preseason and all. He’s definitely looking like he’ll have some great nights during the reg. season so i know he’d give people more reasons to use that headline…but anyway, whatever. it’s funny and i knew it was coming someday. lol. I’m picturing somebody from the dime crew watching the last second of the memphis/indy game then running into the office screaming, “Ok, We can finally use it! Lets go”. lol
concerning skip, you all are right. i’m wishing dude the best but he really better step it up or hope that brooks starts steppin it down. If he doesnt then…
also, i’m thinking bibby better not let his inflated perception of his reputation blind him to the fact that law could creep in and steal his minutes. Dude has looked impressive (like people thought he could be) and could push bibby for that number 1 spot. I’m just sayin, Bibby better try to avoid being hurt…
October 14th, 2008 at 5:11 am
Wes says:
Durant was outstanding!
http://www.squidoo.com/KevinDurantDunk
October 14th, 2008 at 7:19 am
Celts Fan says:
Amen Dime, apparently Cooz was pissed too. The guy only does a handful of games and was apparently told the news by, to try to remember his quote, “some low level nobody.” How quickly people forget when you get 1 (not 7, 1) nice, shiny, new chip…
October 14th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Nimit says:
Hey Dime,
Think you guys might already know, but there’s a great video on youtube of a UK street legend beating devin harris. The guy’s name is Stuart Tanner and has been around for a while. Any chance you can get some Info on him?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysv3v7uXblw
October 14th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Kobeef says:
@Smity
“it’s probably his second most popular signature move”
LOL at that one. I nominate Yao for MPP (Most Posterized Player) in 2009. There are others who get dunked on as much but Yao has a way of making it more meaningful.. maybe the head hanging move is the key.
@Dime
Durant was awesome but we’ve seen that before. I agree that Mayo is the news here - especially after Payton’s comments and the Grizz’s less than secret interest in selling the team. Seattle Fans have to be pretty pumped about a consolation prize of Mayo and Rudy going forward. Mayo looked every bit like the all-star 2- guard he is supposed to be last night. 5 steals has to be the most important part of that line. OJ is more than a scorer.
October 14th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Pete Casey says:
Our college players cannot hang w/ international ‘teams.’
October 14th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Dagomar says:
Always a plus to dunk over the super-tall, soft guy. If Yao sent some of those would-be dunkers packing with an aggressive foul now and then you wouldn’t see nearly as many attempts. In a way it’s sad what happened to Shawn Bradley. The guy was one of the best shot blockers in the league, but everyone will remember him from being on the wrong side of a poster.
I hope you weren’t favourably comparing Jarrett Jack to Jose, by the way. Jack couldn’t hold his jock.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:05 am
karizmatic says:
Oh yeah I meant to comment on that Gilbert article…to me he basically admitted he got signed to a 100 mil contract to be a mascot. Also the reason people criticize his shooting is not because they want to change him its because of the position he plays..if he wants to jack up shots fine…move to the two and let the Wizards get a true point guard. You cannot win at basketball when your point guard takes the most shots on your team. Well at least you can’t win a championship like that.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Ansonious says:
Douchey good adj
October 14th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Doog says:
From what I can tell, Brooks’s game (and the referenced improvement therein) is focused on scoring. While it might make him a valuable rotation player, an ability to put the ball in the basket is not going to secure more burn with Yao, McGrady, and Artest. Relatedly, while still prone to trying a few unnecessary three-point shots, Alston increasingly appears to understand his role is to act as a facilitator for the big guns.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:28 am
yallallreadyknow says:
Phuck bob cousy….the world dont owe him nothing. get over it.
why is rafer alston even still in the nba? didnt sam mitchell body-slam him? get this no showtime bum out the league already. streetball is dead and so is skip.
is oj mayo gonna wanna take shine from rudy gay? 1 of them gonna be jealous of the other by christmas.
kevin durant and muscle have no business in the same sentence.
and why the hell is brent barry still in the league? he should have been exhiled after that horrid dunk contest win.
wow…a shawn bradlet reference. hahaha. lmao. what next…george murasean?
chris wilcox…damn. i dunno what to say except he should be on the mavs behind dirk and damp. but check this…juan dixon cant get minutes, steve blake wont get minutes, lonny baxter is out the league and byron muton never made the league….but a bum like chirs wilcox is still playing…..
Larry Brown is a puss….
damn republican
October 14th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Doog says:
As to cmt.11 from Karizmatic, heard of the Pistons?
http://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/NBA_1990_finals.html
October 14th, 2008 at 9:41 am
yallallreadyknow says:
also…
..is there a player in the league more OVERrated than mike bibby?
October 14th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Kobeef says:
@Y’all
Only Yao Ming
October 14th, 2008 at 10:12 am
one66soul says:
When will the comcast League Pass be available?
October 14th, 2008 at 10:25 am
jack in the box says:
@Dime
Yao is not like Shawn Bradley cuz he dishes out some posters as well as taking some. Just go ask, Malik Rose, Ben Wallace, the big ticket and Timmy D
October 14th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Caliphilosopher says:
How exactly does one fire Cousy? I’m a Laker fan, and Magic can’t talk AT ALL.
Anybody remember his terrible-a$$ talk show?
October 14th, 2008 at 10:57 am
that's whats up says:
…anybody you can call Cooz and they are okay with that is alright in my book
October 14th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
sans says:
I’m still trying to get Magic Hour out of my skull. For real, that show was worse for magic than HIV has been…
And Yao sends people packing. Often. But he is a bulls-eye to get dunked on, just like Mutumbo and Ewing before him. And then there was this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt5pOPn_0Ik which makes everytime someone dunks on Yao that much less significant.
You know who never got dunked on?–Mark Eaton. He scares people when he smiles.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Drink the Haterade (KB24 Chip 09) says:
@ Dime when are you going to post your preview for the Lakers?
October 14th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
doc says:
TAKE THE OVERSEAS PROS OUT AND WE EVEN.oF COURSE MANU WOULD KILL A COLLEGE CAT.BUT WHOEVER BACKS MANU UP WOULD STILL GET HIS ASS HANDED TO HIM.
October 14th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
weezy f says:
i was watching real training camp with the suns yesterday and one of the announcers mentioned samaki walker when interviewing chaq and shq goes “who?” i was dying
October 14th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
BitterSeattlite says:
Haha, how about the Gay Mayo combo.
October 14th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
VERTMAN says:
Poster #14 is a complete moron. Dude, your NBA knowledge is POOR. Learn the game & try not to be so negative. Maybe you need a hug?