Anyone here familiar enough with the Utah Jazz to explain it detail Carlos Boozer's relationship to defense? I cannot watch a baskteball game where Tyler Hansborough, who I believe to be very big for 15 year old, is scoring at will on a grown ass man. I need a frame of reference for these future games. Is it a system thing for him? Is he pouting for not enough offensive touches? Is he just a bad defensive player? I'm hoping that the Pacer's morale is just broken after losing 4 regular season games, then bringing everything they never knew they had and still losing. The problem with the Knicks losing that game is they forgot somewhere in the early 4th that Amar'e was eating Garnett for dinner. Coach didn't say shit, Tony didn't have the chutzpah to say Amar'e needs the ball and Melo went Melo.
KIMaster (amongst others) would be able to say better than me, but the knock on Boozer has always been that his defense was shoddy. I'm not sure what the consensus is on how bad, but it's somewhere between "unacceptable" and "horrific," and has been for a long time. I've heard it's mostly effort and poor basketball IQ on defense, which makes sense because I seem to remember him being a decent, maybe even good, defender at Duke. I doubt it's a system thing, because people complained about it plenty when he was in Utah as well. When he was signed to Chicago, the joke was that Noah's defense+Boozer's offense = perennial All Star, but Noah's offense+Boozer's defense = perennial NBADL player. Some NY Knicks fans are up in arms over KG's hipcheck of Toney Douglas on that Allen jumper and watching the replay....they might be right.
Yeah, but I think Ray Allen got hammered by Melo right before that, so they kinda just let them trade hits. 4:08 mark if you want to see the whole play.
As a lifelong Knicks fan who hates the Celtics like Wile E. hates Roadrunner, I honestly think that Garnett barely grazed him. Not to say there wasn't intent, because there clearly was (and I'm as big of a KG fan as they come), but it's not like Douglas shouldn't have been able to fight his way through it. Ah well, he gets a pass in my book for that big 3 he hit about a minute before. You win some, you lose some.
2nd night in a row they played their best, the Bulls played like shit, and still won. If Keith Bogans is a start next year, I'm rooting for the Raptors next year. It's ridiculous. He had 3 wide open, zero pressure shots, with about 5-6 seconds of time each and missed. Finally made the 4th one. Watching that can give someone a heart attack.
The replay they showed in the Bulls postgame clearly showed KG tripping him, but oh well. Meanwhile, I'm finding it hard not to root for the Bulls almost exclusively because Rose is poetry in motion, even if he did have 23 TOs tonight.
Just out of curiosity (because this game's always a fun one to play), if you were starting your own franchise, and had to pick ONE player to build your roster around, who would it be? Age, skill, potential, health...all of those factors play a part. For me, there's no question that it would be Derrick Rose. The guy stands a chance to win the regular season MVP while taking his team to the Finals in the process, and he's YOUNGER THAN I AM! He's a bad, bad man.
"No question"? What about Kevin Durant? And James and Howard, although a bit older, are at least as good for starting a franchise in terms of basketball performance, but have significantly more star power, an important consideration as well. Keep in mind that Rose is my MVP for this season, (although a damn good argument exists for Nowitzki and Howard) but he is not clearly the best franchise starter by any means.
I'm not saying he's "clearly" the best franchise starter, but my decision was partially driven by how the NBA has become more of a PG's game as of late. Durant, James, Wade, Howard...all of those guys would be solid choices. In fact, if I had to draw up a top-5 list, those guys would fill it out, in that order. What stands out to me, more than anything, is the position Rose plays. A great point guard is a lot harder to find than a great SF or big man, and also has a greater influence over a game.
Tim Legler just called Doc Rivers "the best late-game coach in the NBA" on SportsCenter, while breaking down tonight's Game 2. Where do they make substances that can make one so delusional? Also, if Amare doesn't score 40, something is definitely wrong. Not even Kevin Garnett can stop him. D'Antoni needs to feed him the ball more.
LeBron. Hands down, LeBron. Even though I think he's a douchebag, LeBron. Why? What can he NOT do, that's why. Sure, Derrick Rose is a stud. So is Durant. So is Dwight Howard. However, if you are going to start a team from scratch, you take one guy that does almost everything on the court well and build around him. Need points? LeBron can score. Need assists? LeBron can pass. Need rebounds? LeBron can rebound. Need speed? LeBron is fast. Need size? He's the size of fucking Karl Malone. How do you argue with a 26 year old guy that averages 27.7 ppg on almost 50% shooting, 7.5 reb, 7.0 ast, 1.7 stls and 0.9 blocks over his 8 year career? Durant would probably be my second choice, then Dwight or Rose. Bottom line, you can start any team around those guys, but if I could pick from any single player in the NBA, it would be Lebron. On a side note, since we're talking hoops dreams here, I've noticed that the Celtics have only Rondo and Pierce under contract after next season, and Dwight is a free agent. I wonder how Dwight would look in green...
Question is, if Amar'e scores 40, do the Knicks win? I don't think so. It's almost like what Atlanta did to Dwight Howard: Go ahead, score as much as you can, big guy. Dwight and Amar'e are both black holes: Once the ball goes in, it rarely gets passed back out, and the offense gets stagnant. D'Antoni doesn't want to slow down and run post offense with Amar'e. KG may not be able to stop him every time, but will definitely make every shot as tough as possible. Amar'e would have to work his ass off for those 40 points.
Not according to him, he wouldn't: What I mean about him needing to score 40 is that he's more than capable of doing so. 40 is a tall order, and it's not guarantee for a win as you mentioned with the Orlando game, but the Knicks' best chances are inside. That's where they have the advantage: STAT vs. whoever. The Celtics have the much better perimeter game, even more so now that Billups is out for game 2. I can understand D'Antoni not wanting to slow down the pace, but he should well know by now, especially after their Phoenix days, of what Stoudemire is capable of, especially against this Celtics defense. I'd rather take my chances down in the post rather than see inexperienced guys like Fields and Douglas take their chances with the 3. If there's one thing everyone can agree on by now, it's that the run-and-gun, shoot 25 3-pointers a game strategy doesn't work as well in the playoffs. Sooner or later, their offense HAS to slow down.
What the fuck has gotten into Rondo? Is this the same guy that refused to take a shot at the beginning of the season? He's attacking like he did 2 years ago. I like this Rondo. I think him not wearing the headband means Evil Rondo. This is a good game right now. Y'all should be watching it if you're not. He's tied with Pierce for points at 17 as of right now. How many times has that happened this year?
That coast-to-coast layup with 4:30 left in the half was the Rondo I like to see (or don't, considering he plays for Boston). This flavor of Rondo is the reason he would have been the third-biggest free agent after LeBron and Amar'e last summer. He also had a very pretty spin/finger roll combo that almost went in, about 2 minutes prior to that play. Went past like 3 Knicks in the process. When Rondo's at his absolute best, he's capable of being the best player on Boston's roster. Srsly. It's great to see how far he's come, considering lots of people were chalking him up as a huge liability in the starting rotation following the KG-Allen trades 4 years ago.
What I don't understand is that the Knicks have scrub guards on their team that can't make shots for shit, barely defend and really all they do is run around and pass the ball. Now, I don't really give a shit, but watching some of these bench players makes me wonder why everyone thinks Jimmer won't be able to make it in the NBA. I know he's not the fastest, but fuck at least he can shoot. Professional NBA players not being able to make uncontested jumpers, what the fuck?
QFT. Bill Walker singlehandedly lost the game for the Knicks tonight. For those who aren't aware, this was his stat line: 33 minutes, 0-11 FG, 0-5 3PT. He had 2 points early on from the line, and that was it. Although, his +/- was +10, higher than everyone on either team, except Ray Allen at +11. What's that about? Defense? I don't recall him playing particularly strongly on that end.