OK, so it’s safe to say Vince Carter is back. After a terrible month of January that would’ve made bigger headlines had the Magic had been losing, Vince ran off two straight 20-point games over Super Bowl weekend, then last night he exploded on the Hornets like Shane Diesel at a cougar convention … Vince got going early, scoring seven of Orlando’s first 12 points after tip-off, but was fairly quiet the rest of the first half as the Magic got picked apart by Darren Collison (27 pts, 9 asts, 4 stls) and David West (27 pts) and gave up 70 points by halftime. The defense tightened up in the second half, though, and Vince went nuts. He finished with 48 points, six threes and zero dunks. Read More »
If we had told you Nazr Mohammed more than quadrupled Kobe Bryant’s scoring total on a night where Kobe played 36 minutes and wasn’t missing a major limb or anything, would you believe that the Lakers still won the game? Moreover, would you believe that we weren’t on ’shrooms? … Following his 44-point performance against Memphis, Kobe scored a season-low five points (2-12 FG) against the Bobcats, and yet L.A. still managed a win. Kobe made a three in the second quarter, hit a fadeaway in the third, and otherwise bricked everything he threw up and hurt his foot when Lamar Odom stepped on it. Read More »
30. New Jersey Nets (4-42)
Last week: Beat L.A. Clippers; lost to Washington; lost to Philadelphia.
With Kris Humphries being able to step in and immediately become Jersey’s second-best big man, is that a credit to Humphries’ talent or an indictment of the team’s lack of talent? We’ll go with “B.”
29. Los Angeles Clippers (20-27)
Last week: Lost at New Jersey; lost at Minnesota; lost at Cleveland.
Technically, they could have had a worse week. At least the players’ paychecks didn’t bounce. Read More »
In a lot of ways, Lakers/Celtics shouldn’t have even come down to Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce looking to trade daggers in the final seconds. The Lake Show dominated the first quarter as Andrew Bynum (19 pts, 11 rebs) took ownership of the paint and Kobe (19 pts) hit his typical array of tough shots that he made look easy. Then, after Boston recovered to make it a ballgame, L.A. found themselves down by double-digits in the fourth thanks to Rajon Rondo (21 pts, 12 asts) carving up the defense and Eddie House throwing in some big threes. So the Lakers rallied, and with 45 seconds left, Ron Artest made an awkward runner — yes, you could say all of Ron-Ron’s buckets are awkward — to cut the lead to one. Read More »
Not that he really needed to, but Chris Bosh sealed what will be his fifth straight All-Star selection later tonight with a dominating effort against the Heat on Wednesday. Breaking out the throwback unis from the 1947 Toronto Huskies — oddly enough, a team that was also accused of being soft and not playing defense — the Raptors’ win moved them into fifth-place in the East while Miami dropped to sixth … The Raps were down by 13 in the first half, but rallied and were clinging to a small lead late in the fourth quarter. After Bosh (24 pts, 18 rebs) hit a jumper to put them up by seven, one T-Dot announcer screamed, “The cream rises to the top!” Even when Bosh messed up, it worked for him. Read More »
Though it’s tough to cover everything in a concise manner, let’s attempt to traverse this broad topic by way of using a simple grading system. The first letter grade after each player’s name will be based on their performance thus far, in addition to how they’ve fallen short of, met or exceeded expectations; and the second grade will be based on their expected value during the second half of the season. Read More »
