The Phoenix Suns are up on the Spurs at halftime. Now, I’m one who usually picks on NBA teams for half assing it the first part of the season. But, I think both the Suns and the Spurs have a lot to prove this year. The Lakers are supposed to walk away with the Western Conference this year but I’d like to see the Suns as well as the Spurs and the Mavs challenge the Lakers in the West. I"m not buying the Rockets yet until I see how Artest works out there. The Jazz and Hornets should be competitive.
I’m also resevering judgement on the Blazers. Lots of hype so far, but the untested Greg Oden hasn’t been through the rigors of an NBA season yet.
After that, who knows? I’m thinking either the Nuggets, Warriors, Clippers, or Kings might be able to put something together. With some luck, any of those teams can win 50 games. They could also lose 50 as well.
My Portland TrailBlazers looked horrible on opening night. Maybe the Lakers, now with Bynum and Gasol together, are just that damn good. Oden is the new Sam Bowie. He’s made of glass; he’s out 2-4 weeks with a sprained foot.
I predict Lakers, Hornets, Jazz, Spurs, Rockets, Phoenix, Dallas, and Blazers in that order. The Leastern Conference is Boston and everyone else.
No doubt the Lakers are long on talent and versatility, but my feeling is we need to see how they perform in a crunch-time game (assuming it happens at some point). Will it be a bunch of guys with sweaty palms deferring to Kobe who launches prayer after prayer? Because if that happens the Lakers can win 75 but it won’t matter in the playoffs/finals.
But I am very impressed with their defensive effort and Jordan Farmar has “stud” written all over him. Trevor Ariza has taken a huge step forward offensively.
Why is there a team in Memphis? The arena looks to be about 25% full tonight. Yes it is a Monday and it is early in the NBA season and Golden State isn’t a rival But does anyone in Memphis even know they have an NBA team?
I had to do a double-take when I saw it. I love it. The young kids on the roster are stepping up. Denver is going to buy out McDyess and he’ll resign with the Pistons. This move is about the future, ironically enough. See, Iverson and his monster salary come off the books. Detroit would have enough cap space to sign two people to max deals from the crop of soon-to-be free agents that includes LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh (who they should have drafted anyways, but I digress), Amare Stoudemire, and others.
Impressive start by the Suns tonight. The Suns need to beat these Eastern conference teams to stay competitive in the West. The Lopez brothers battle is fun as well.
The Spurs don’t have a win yet. This team has Parker and Duncan and is missing Ginobili big time. The rest of the team hasn’t shown up this year. I really wouldn’t want to fall too far behind in the Western Conference this year.
Tonight, the Suns look very sluggish. I don’t like back to back road games if there any real travel involved. I"m fine with back to back games against the Lakers/Clippers, Nets/Knicks, Warriors/Kings, or some combo of the Spurs/Rockets/Mavs. But New Jersey to Indiana?
The Oklahoma City Supersonics have fired PJ Carlesimo. I guess he was too much of a ‘choke’ at coach.
Watching the game last night between New Orleans and OKC, I couldn’t help but laugh at how the announcers kept talking about how excited OKC fans were to have the Thunder. I bet 99.99% of the sports coverage is focusing on today’s Oklahoma/Texas Tech game.
