A Necessary Evil
Deron Williams (photo. Christian Kozowyck)As expected, the sudden rash of high-profile injuries — namely Deron Williams (ankle), Steve Nash (ankle x2) and Baron Davis (finger) — has a lot of people questioning whether the NBA preseason is worthwhile. The short answer: Yes, it is. This is basketball, injuries happen, and the preseason is absolutely necessary. If Deron, Nash and Baron weren’t playing in exhibition games, they would be in a gym somewhere playing ball to get ready for the season, where the chances of getting hurt aren’t any greater or worse. The only difference between preseason games and preseason practice/workouts is that people are being charged for tickets, plus you’re not going up against your own teammates every day … That said, at this point we’re pretty f’n tired of waiting for the real games to get going, so we can watch teams like the Blazers. LaMarcus Aldridge (24 pts, 6 rebs, 5 asts, 4 stls) and Greg Oden (13 pts, 9 rebs) put in work last night, treating the Kings’ big men like orange cones in Portland’s road win. Oden may have already found someone to play Craig Ehlo to his MJ; in their two preseason matchups, Oden has been kind of killing Spencer Hawes, either backing him down like a little kid and dunking on his head or giving him finesse buckets while Hawes just stands there with his hands in the air like he’s in a deodorant ad … Kevin Martin scored 34 in the loss, going 10-for-13 from the field and 12-for-14 from the stripe. One of these days K-Mart — whose new mohawk somehow just works for him — is gonna drop 45 in a game where he misses no more than two shots, and it’ll seem totally natural. Highlight of the night: Martin crossed up Rudy Fernandez at the top of the key, elevated and put down a two-hand dunk between Oden and LaMarcus … If the Blazers are the new fad in the West, the Sixers are filling that same role in the East. Yesterday we previewed the ‘08-09 Sixers, who with Elton Brand, Andre Iguodala and Andre Miller at the core, should take a big leap from last year’s conference 7th seed … It’s real easy to pick on Eddy Curry right now (at least a lot easier than it would be to pick some food off his plate), but seriously, how has he gone from being a borderline All-Star in ‘07 to quite possibly the worst player on the Knicks in ‘08? Yesterday against the Nets, Curry made his first bucket of the preseason, and the rest of the time he was getting worked over by Brook Lopez (19 pts, 9 rebs, 3 blks). It’s not even a skills thing, either; Curry looks like he doesn’t even have any pride left, like he’s not trying … Not every N.J. big man had a good time. Sean Williams got a fitted hat from Mardy Collins, who hasn’t dunked on anybody since high school … E-mail from one of our boys during the game: “Yi is Chinese for ‘Really,’ and Jianlian is Chinese for ‘Stinks.’” … To celebrate today’s release of the sick Elite 24 documentary Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot, we’re doling out five free copies of the two-disc DVD and five limited edition BAPE tee’s right HERE. If you want to double up your chances at winning, also check out the contest that Bounce is running… The Knicks won behind Nate Robinson’s 26 points, Wilson Chandler’s 22 and eight boards, and Stephon Marbury’s 16 and six dimes in a little over 15 minutes off the bench. “Nate is an energetic player and Marbury’s a scorer, so we can’t lose with that lineup,” Chandler said afterward. “I just play off them. They’re going to get all the looks, so when they’re double-teamed or they’re focusing more on them, I’m open.” Notice how Chandler was talking about two point guards and never once said the word “pass” … Maybe Dwight Howard is gonna stick to that plan of diversifying his game after all. He helped beat the Hawks with a clutch free throw and a little turnaround jumper in the last minute of the fourth, finishing with 29 points and 11 boards. The Hawks D’d him up like it was a regular season game, too, sending Dwight to the line 22 times (he made 13) … Joe Johnson (26 pts, 7 rebs, 5 asts) hit a couple of huge threes in the final couple of minutes to keep ATL close, but he missed what could have been a game-winner with under 30 seconds left. Then on the Hawks’ next time down, Mike Bibby missed a potential game-winner. Bibby built his rep as a crunch-time killer during that ‘02 run with the Kings, but when you think about it, how many big shots has he hit since then? … On Nov. 13, a little more than a week after he might be elected mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson is scheduled to appear on “The Colbert Report.” … The Bobcats are comical. We were just talking about how J-Rich and Ray Felton need to not dominate the ball and shoot so much, and what happens their next time out? While Felton was pretty quiet in last night’s OT loss to Phoenix, backup D.J. Augustin steps in and goes 4-for-20 from the field (11-for-12 FT’s). Has anyone gone from “pure point guard” prospect to “Mo Williams Jr.” in the course of one offseason? It’s funny too, because back when we got up with D.J. the day before the draft and he said he’d been working out with T.J. Ford, J.R. Smith and Steve Francis, reader Celts Fan saw it coming: “Working out with and being mentored by those guys just dropped him about 10 spots on my board. Apparently he’s looking to be a gunner who refuses to pass unless he absolutely cannot shoot. What, Mo Williams was too busy to join them?” … If you watch “The Office,” you’ve probably noticed the Gerry McNamara bobblehead that’s always sitting on Dwight’s desk. The show is set in Scranton, Pa., where G-Mac is basically the mayor, and a friend of his brother actually works on the show and made sure the bobblehead made it on camera … We’re out like D-Miles …
October 21st, 2008 at 4:19 am
sam says:
first!
October 21st, 2008 at 4:40 am
bamba says:
G-mac aint the mayor of Scranton…
October 21st, 2008 at 4:42 am
budz says:
better early than late in the season.
monster ultimate
October 21st, 2008 at 4:52 am
JT$ says:
Devin Harris is garbage
October 21st, 2008 at 5:12 am
Willis says:
Isn’t Joe Biden from Scranton?
Anyway, thanks for showing K-Mart Extreme some love. And Spencer didn’t do THAT bad. He just plays against Oden like he is really scared of him. He’s a bitch about it.
October 21st, 2008 at 5:36 am
Jeeves says:
6th!!!
October 21st, 2008 at 6:36 am
smity far away says:
that lob to fernandez and reverse dunk finish was real surprising and nasty
and wilson chandler looks real good. i was kinda sleepin on him but he might be a nice player for the knicks this year.
too bad the bulls passed on aldrige…he’s gonna be a big time problem soon…
7 days until the games start counting. if somebody says they don’t miss the real season then they must be crazy…
October 21st, 2008 at 7:00 am
schoops says:
G-mac prolly could run scranton if he wanted. they sent up bus loads of people from scranton to SU for his home games back when he was in college. and yes, Joe Biden was born in scranton.
Eddy Curry was never a borderline allstar, unless everyone wanted the first all star center with less than 3 rebounds a game on the east squad. the knicks should buy him out so he can just sit at home and eat, unless they want to keep him under contract so he can sit at home and eat.
knicks are looking solid starting Lee and Randolph and then bringing in a versatile big in Wilson off the bench (who’s perfect for d’antoni’s system). If duhon can run the show in a decent fashion they should be solid this year.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:03 am
justice says:
Can’t wait till the games start don’t F it up now NY
October 21st, 2008 at 9:22 am
GEE...Up with hope, down with dope! says:
DIME world what up! First DIME, perhaps I missed it but I know everyone, well most everyone had to get a glimpse of the ref that laid the hit on the South Carolina football player. If you can pull that up on Youtube somehow for people to see that would be great. I have never seen a ref. lay it on a player lol.
I mean you see a ref doing something in commercials all the time, but in a real game and that close to the goal line as well. Crazy.
Got me thinking what if a ref. set a monster pick on a player in Basketball, granted they are not on the floor like they are in football (field rather). Still that would be hilarious.
Second if you all can pull up the video of Terry Tate knocking the %$#@ out of Palin on Youtube that would be hilarious too. I wish I had my own personal Terry Tate my boss would get it every day!
October 21st, 2008 at 9:35 am
control says:
Wasn’t some people crazy talking about ECity being something OTHER than a food network taste tester a few weeks ago? Something about working out with Tim Grover? I called it back then, he’s not going to end up being anything other than a higher paid Jerome James.
October 21st, 2008 at 9:54 am
Dennis Castro says:
Enough with the Eddy Curry updates. Why waste time and space on someone who obviously doesn’t deserve any mentioning anyway?
If he doesn’t give a f, why should we about him.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s out of the league in a couple of years.
Ish like that is a shame. Give any one of us the opportunity to be in the NBA and I’m sure most of us would take full advantage of that.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:19 am
Big V says:
Marbury didn’t score 16 last night, he had 9 pts and 6 dimes.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:41 am
sans says:
Gee, as a ref, sometimes players will dribble off your foot in loose ball situations. I had a kid break my glasses with an elbow because some another player did the KG-shove while he was in mid air. The player that hit me was apologizing and ish while I told him it was no problem before throwing the bitch KG wannabe out of the gym.
During kids games though, when I’m right behind a fastbreak, I have always wanted to Josh Smith a shot into the stands, ruining a 7th graders free layup moment.
October 21st, 2008 at 11:50 am
control says:
sans,
Good job being a bad ass. You challenge any of those kids to a fight afterwards?
October 21st, 2008 at 11:54 am
Ted says:
Deron will back back, no prob…
http://www.squidoo.com/DeronWilliams
October 21st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
marcus the great says:
WHERE’S TYRONE??????
October 21st, 2008 at 12:57 pm
GEE...Up with hope, down with dope! says:
Sans lol that’s crazy. I am crackin up at you wanting to ruin the dreams of a 7th grader. Hey I teach 4th grade though and I know the temptation and many times I follow through with it.
I’ll be playing them hard, usually I will roll with the girls and play vs. the boys and they are all mad. Then I get home and tell the wife, “Yea I dropped 20 and had 5 blocks” her response …”GEE THEY ARE 4TH GRADERS!” LOL.
Still I don’t think a ref has ever been involved in any sport like that football dude was Sat. He laid a nice shoulder.
October 21st, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Kobeef says:
Kevin Martin’s crossover and dunk in traffic was nasty.
http://www.nba.com/video/games/kings/2008/10/20/nba_por_sac_0010800085_recap.nba/index.html?player=whatsnew
October 21st, 2008 at 1:36 pm
sans says:
Oh, and every person I know from Scranton brings up Gerry McNamara to me whenever conversation turns to hoops–he’s a hero in that part of PA.
October 21st, 2008 at 1:39 pm
sans says:
@ control…no, but I run into City League players all the time. The best are the guys that appreciate you Ting up their loudmouthed teammate. The worst are the guys who don’t forget nothing and accumulate rockshards on their shoulders their whole life, still mad about an intentional foul or technical from 2 years previous. Those are the guys I typically have to throw out my bar.
October 21st, 2008 at 1:41 pm
sans says:
Oh, and one time, after the Special Olympics, I fouled out this gigantic Lenny mfer, and he waited for me outside. Luckily, he does this every year so security was paying attention.
October 21st, 2008 at 3:55 pm
control says:
sans,
So you are saying you that you only fight kids when they are smaller…but if they are bigger with retard strength you call security? Way to man up.
October 21st, 2008 at 4:37 pm
sans says:
control,
no only irrational adults that get drunk in my bar. And that “kid” at the special olympics was 35 years old. I’m amazed that you can type when you obviously cannot read.
October 21st, 2008 at 5:13 pm
control says:
sans,
Just ragging on you buddy, relax my friend. I DO just randomly bang my head on the keyboard until it looks like words, sentences and paragraphs…I guess I’m just a lucky bitch.
October 22nd, 2008 at 5:57 am
Monkey says:
you know nothing about Chinese names,all bullshit