Meeting of the Minds
Kobe Bryant (photo. Chris Sembrot)Kobe vs. D-Wade didn’t quite live up to the hype. While the two did literally go head-to-head at one point and drew blood in the process, as far as shootouts go, last night was a full notch below their December matchup when Wade dropped 35 and Kobe’s potential game-tying bucket went halfway in before popping out at the buzzer. Of course Kobe (19 pts, 7 asts) had his deep threes and dunks in this one, and Wade (27 pts, 9 asts) had his usual H-O-R-S-E shots, but Lakers/Heat was about the big men: L.A.’s twin towers dominating and Miami’s lack of a legit post presence being exposed. Pau Gasol put up 14 points and 18 boards, and Andrew Bynum scored 24, including the go-ahead putback with 18 seconds left. All Miami had for a counter was undersized Udonis Haslem, about five minutes of Joel Anthony, Jamaal Magloire in the expired-milk phase of his career, and no traces of Mark Blount, who’s more 7-foot in theory and not so much in practice … With Jose Calderon out of the All-Star picture and Rajon Rondo fading with every Celtics loss, Jameer Nelson is the Eastern Conference PG (after Devin Harris) the coaches need to really think about come voting time. Tony Parker put up a bigger stat line (31 pts, 6 asts) yesterday, but Jameer (22 pts, 5 asts) took over Magic/Spurs at the end. After both teams traded clutch buckets all day, Nelson scored eight points in the last two minutes, keeping Orlando ahead while the Spurs couldn’t hit anything when they really needed to … Jameer’s also developing the kind of chemistry with Dwight Howard that you see on the AND 1 tour; even when Jameer gets caught in mid-air, he’s been able to find Dwight at the rim, sometimes without looking. They’ve almost got what Steve Nash and Amare have — one difference being that Nash in his prime had that same connection with everybody on the team … Speaking of, Nash handed out 12 assists in Phoenix’s win over the Clippers, helping Amare to some of his 26 points. Nash also had his Shane Battier game going; he took at least 5-6 charges, and in the post-game Grant Hill compared him to Bobby Hurley in that regard … Shaq (15 pts, 10 rebs) dunked on Brian Skinner And His Stupid Beard one time and pretty much put his junk in Skinner’s face as he hung on the rim. Skinner, trapped between Shaq’s legs, could only turn his head and take it in the ear …
Jamal CrawfordYou knew Pacers/Warriors was gonna be a fantasy owner’s favorite game of the day. Both teams like to run and they both stink defensively. Danny Granger won the battle, finishing with 42 points, but Jamal Crawford won the war, dropping 32 and the game-winner on a wing three with 11 seconds left. Indy managed to get themselves two more chances to win after that, but Mike Dunleavy Jr. missed a three on the first, and Granger had to give it up to Travis Diener on the second, who bricked a completely wide-open look … The GS fans were booing Dunleavy every time he got the ball, while Troy Murphy wasn’t getting quite as much venom. What’s gonna be real interesting is the fan reaction to Monta Ellis when he gets back. Do they cheer the guy who’s their best player and was a fan favorite last time they saw him? Or boo the guy who ruined their (probably would have stunk anyway) season with his own mistake? … When did the Raptors officially go from dangerous playoff team to one of those teams you hope to see on the schedule when you’re in a slump? And was this all Sam Mitchell’s doing, or something we can trace to the work of golden child Bryan Colangelo? The Celtics caught the Raptors in one of their regular weekend morning tip-offs that everyone on the West Coast sleeps through, and looked more like that team who’d dominated the League for basically all of calendar year 2008. Ray Allen dropped eight threes (36 points), Rondo went for 14 and 11 dimes, and Brian Scalabrine started for the injured Kendrick Perkins. Please don’t let Doc Rivers read too much into that … Ray was pretty much unstoppable (11-14 FG’s, 8-10 3PA, 6-6 FT’s). One time late in the fourth he found a gap in Toronto’s zone — at least we think it was a zone; either way it was soft as hell — and stuck a three over Roko Ukic to put Boston back up by double-digits, which caused Jamario Moon to throw a personal little temper tantrum under the basket … Was Scalabrine serious trying to buck up on Joey Graham? That one would end VERY badly for him … Finally, we’re doing a little research and we want to know who our readers favorite CURRENT NBA players are. So here’s the deal: EMAIL us your Top 15 favorite current NBA players (in order) and we’ll enter you into a contest to win a free XBox 360 and EA Sports game bundle. E-mail your top 15 players to top15@dimemag.com. The deadline for submission is Friday at 12 p.m. EST … We’re out like Blount …
January 12th, 2009 at 6:43 am
D.Michael Lee says:
Miami has been overachieving all season. D-Wade can only carry them but so far without a true big man though.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:05 am
Mister Sun says:
magic/spurrs was so funny,in a bad way. the refs were bad on both sides, but the spurs announcers were just horrible. they are so bad homers, unbelievable. they called a play good defense when howard got an eaaaasy dunk.
oh, and manu was flopping left and right again.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:21 am
miamiVIS3 says:
Hahaha mark Blount is 7 foot “in theory”.
Genius
January 12th, 2009 at 7:24 am
John says:
Miami with a big men will be a problem, Beasley had his 3 consecutive 20 point game, and behind Marion, Blount, Banks, Dorrel, Smush(yes, he still counting on our salarie), we have 33 million that could be use on a reserve point guard (3M) a decent small foward (9M) and a monster center (21M).
In other news, what about Shaq shotting 5-5 from FT line after he did 7-7 in his last game ???
January 12th, 2009 at 7:27 am
Shrink This says:
More people need to call out Bryan Colangelo for putting together the current iteration of the Raptors. Maybe TJ Ford was right when he said that he wasn’t the cause of the chemistry problem in the Raps’ dressing room last season.
Mitchell’s style of yelling at everyone when things went badly worked for a season or so and then got old. Of course the fact that he couldn’t strategize himself or his team out of a wet paper bag didn’t help either.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:08 am
rangerjohn says:
oh hell spurs/magic was THE WORST OFFICIATED GAME OF THE YEAR. i mean damn manu is standing perfectly still (not even looking at howard) and gets plowed over and gets called for a foul, then howard goes up for a dunk and nobody even touched him and duncan gets called, there were shitty calls all night. i mean damn d-wae was not even in the building and the refs still called every bullshit call they could find.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:32 am
BENNYHILL says:
@ Rangerjohn
If you are talking about the manu/dwight play in the 4th, no foul was called
Plus Dwight barely touched him, and its about time the refs woke up to his weak flops
January 12th, 2009 at 8:38 am
doc says:
Miami got talent.They lacking a good big, so what so is 20 other teams.If they dont make the playoffs they are underachieving.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:42 am
GEE...got a little light under the sun! says:
Houston Up!
“Shaq (15 pts, 10 rebs) dunked on Brian Skinner And His Stupid Beard one time and pretty much put his junk in Skinner’s face as he hung on the rim. Skinner, trapped between Shaq’s legs, could only turn his head and take it in the ear …”
HILARIOUS! Real good one Dime and that is what Skinner gets with that Stupid Beard.
I am going to really have to think on that fav 15.
Is is fair to say Shaq is the 2nd best center in the L right now?
Some poor team in the west is going to have a winning record and be left out to dry this year.
With almost a month left I wonder if we will stop getting these meaningless trades and get something to make us say “Ohhh now that could change things?”
In his ear…Hilarious!
January 12th, 2009 at 8:49 am
M Intellect says:
Please tell me Scalibrine didn’t try and get brolic with Joey Graham.
This is what a championship does to people, notable examples; KG, Kendrick Perkins and Scalebrine.
Amare and Shaq need to just get their D-Block on wound them horribly.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Mister Sun says:
@ bennyhill
was wondering the same. dwight was spinning away from this guy and he exaggerated it in a hilarious way. if he did it a little less hollywood it could have been called.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:19 am
E$ says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69fIqs4ocMA
Dwade threw a sick alley to Matrix
January 12th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Ross says:
rangerjohn is right, that’s probably the worst officiated game of the year, if not the worst one I’ve seen in a while. I’ve seen YMCA games reffed better than that.
The ref’s were definitely favoring the Magic. Maybe they thought they were in Orlando, trying to favor the home team, but even then they would have been overdoing it.
If Spurs fans were Suns fans, there would be about 200 YouTube vidoes up this morning.
January 12th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Ross says:
I loved the foul on Bruce Bowen for having his hand on the back of someone while dribbling the ball from about half court. Is that a foul now? Did I miss a rule change?
January 12th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Brown says:
I’ve been calling Colangelo out all year. The Raps are no better now than they were when he was hired. They might even be worse. He focuses too much on the offensive end of the floor (drafting Bargnani, signing Kapono, re-signing Calderon). They’ve been horrible defensively for years (since before BC was hired), and he’s done nothing to address that. They haven’t had a reliable scorer on the wing since VC was traded. He’s done nothing to address that. They’ve been among the league’s worst rebounding teams, and all he’s done to address that is trade for an almost completely broken-down JO.
All he’s really done is shuffle the deck, but he still has shitty cards. I believe Mitchell tried to get the team to play defense, but the players (that Colangelo assembled) just have no defensive ability. You can’t blame the coach when you saddle him with a shitty hand and ask him to work magic to produce wins. Mitchell wasn’t the best coach, but he wasn’t as bad as most people make him out to be.
A GM’s job is to address the team’s deficiencies. I don’t think Colangelo gets that. For a team with a star PF (Bosh) that was already pretty good offensively, drafting Bargnani (an offense-oriented PF) made no sense. I don’t care what type of player he becomes, he just doesn’t fit with their roster. He’ll become the focus of the offense in 2010 when Bosh leaves.
None of his moves have made any sense to me. He should be on a very short leash.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Kudabeen says:
Sixers got 4 in a row…And are playing better…I know no one cares, but I’m going to keep saying what I’ve been saying…Dre I (27 6 and 9) is balling…He will never be a superstar scorer, but he is one of the Top 10 (YES TEN) All-Around multi-position players in the L…
MY 10 best All Around guys (Sorta in order)
LeBron
Wade
Kobe
KG
Joe John
Roy
Tayshaun (ultimate gap filler)
Dre I (only he and LBJ has 15 6 and 5 type numbers, not the greatest, but he fills a lot of gaps)
Granger (need to work on creating for others)
Crash (When he is involved)
January 12th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Kudabeen says:
Oh yeah…About Dileo’s 3-point shooting goals a la Jim O’Brien’s coaching style that was once in Philly…
Sixers shot 60% (9-15 4 more makes than their “quota”) from 3 yesterday and Dre I was 3-4…It’s all about confidence…
Just saying…
January 12th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Bron42 aka Haters drink my bath water says:
ross ya, its a hand chec
January 12th, 2009 at 10:26 am
that's whats up says:
ranger, spurs were still in it before Parker’s “I-ran-out-of-gas” last few shot attempts.
Spurs will have close games, but they have to hit their shots.
the refs did suck, it was like it was ‘opposite day’ with every call.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Kudabeen says:
Yeah they don’t let you steer the ball handler (lol) like they use to pre 2000…I remember watch Jordan and GP riding offensive players and being all in their shirt, but the L is totally different.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:34 am
d says:
Dime,
I love you guys, but seriously, there were 7 games last night. I’m only really reading about 5 on here. You guys get caught up in playoff football?
January 12th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Zen Master says:
@ Brown
There is no way Colangelo goes anywhere. Even though I hate the way the current team is put together, I have to have faith that Colangelo has a plan and it’s just taking some time. Still I think their a solid wing who can D up and create his own shot away from being at least mentionable in the East.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:46 am
DNice says:
I’m glad the refs didn’t fall for Manu’s flopping! I
thought the NBA was gonna put a stop to that stuff.
Spurs have always been known as floppers & argue w/
the refs after every foul call! Don’t blame refs,
blame Spurs for allowing magic to shoot 14-22 3pt,
Parker missing 2 easy shots at the rim. Nelson
took over the final 2 mins.He deserves alot of
credit. Magic 30-8 overall 14-5 on the road,thats
tops in NBA.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:00 am
QQ says:
‘one difference being that Nash in his prime had that same connection with everybody on the team’…
Damn. Nash’s prime seems so long ago now, when it’s just 3 or 4 years ago.
And gotta love the Magic win. Sean Elliot could bitch about fouls and refs all day, but that Magic win is a MAN’s win; they earned it.
Magic = number 2 in the East, as I speak. Hey, where the fuck are all your yapping and screaming now, KG?
January 12th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Brown says:
@ Zen Master
I agree with you to a point. I think Colangelo’s job SHOULD be on the line, but it’s not. After the Rob Babcock fiasco, they have to give BC some years to do something, especially with a potentially franchise-altering free agency period coming in 2010. He’s at least safe until the season following that. The way he drafts this year will determine if I have any faith left in him, cuz right now it’s as near zero as you can get.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
control says:
The reffing in the NBA is horrible, period. Saying that the Spurs/Magic game was exceptionally bad is like the difference between killing someone with a gun and knife. Fool is still murdered in the end.
The Raptors are just depressing. I bet if you randomly click on NBA profiles, at least half of the players in the NBA have their game highs for almost every stat against the Raps. At least one guy on the other team gets hot enough to make them lose, they just straight ain’t got no balls. Once one of their guys starts to go off, they quit giving them the ball. Bosh dunked on Garnet and started to get something going…so they started feeding Moon on the outside, good call. Tough being a Raps fan sometimes.
January 12th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
haslem says:
Heat, and Mavs should swing a trade for a big
January 12th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Ross says:
Bron42,
The player had his back to him, with his hand on his back. Bowen had his hand on his back for about 5 seconds. Just out of nowhere, the ref called it a foul. I’ve reffed league games before, and that wasn’t a foul. He wasn’t putting pressure on him or anything. I see players do it multiple times a game.
January 12th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
control says:
Ross
You have reffed NBA league games or just rec league games in general?
January 12th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
K Dizzle says:
Orlando’s three point shootin, Jameer’s refound swag, and the Beast in the middle gonna be a problem out east…
January 12th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
LAballer says:
what a surprise..spurs lose and its the refs fault..dude every team has those games where calls are going against them left and right..and while you can bitch about it cause we all do when our fav team has that happen to them..you gotta look at the 14-22 3’s..jameer out working parker badly..and the magic getting a few stops that they needed to get the W..manu isnt always gonna have his flops work for him and really that shit gets annoying watching him fall all over the place and refs feeding him calls..while bowen’s hand check wasnt a foul i dont think there is any need in this world to feel bad about him..im surprised someone hasnt knocked him out by now with the shit he gets away with..Shaq is rockin it right now and as a life long shaq fan (yeah im from la and i said that) im lovin it..thats my dude..i really wish the scalaweenie fight woulda gone down..dude got lucky he didnt get the one hitter quiter put on him..im out..LAAAAAKERSSSSSS! =]
January 12th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
rangerjohn says:
#14 man that foul on bowen was CRAP!!!!
his man was NOT EVEN MOVING, he was standing still, bowen had his hand on his back (like every otherdefender in the league) and the ref called a foul, i mean they where not even moving, standing still and not doing anything at all.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
WinDelRoj says:
Shaq (15 pts, 10 rebs) dunked on Brian Skinner And His Stupid Beard one time and pretty much put his junk in Skinner’s face as he hung on the rim. Skinner, trapped between Shaq’s legs, could only turn his head and take it in the ear”
Damn… almost leaving me speechless.
I cant believe RangerJohn and his arguments. Seen his team get unbelieveable charges every year more so than any team in the L, Tim Duncan getting bigs fouled out in the playoffs for no good reason and the whole team showing up refs on the regular.. but dude gets outraged at the one game where it wont go their way.. just be happy that 99% of the time the spurs are right all the time…..