Real Deal

CP3 with the bad pass. :o Game over!

Brian Cook, you choker. I knew it.

Gomes, WTF.

Ariza misses both! Griffin board!

What the hell? That foul was before he even turned to pass the ball to Gordon. He didn't even give a motion to pass the ball yet. How was it after the release?

Good screen by Blake, Gordon is selfish as hell and thinks he's a superstar, but Ryan Gomes bails him out with the o-board and put-back. Clippers lead by two, 37 seconds left.

Blake pulled down two consecutive o-boards and dropped in a put-back to tie the game, then he defended CP3 on the perimeter and forced him to pass the ball, causing a shot clock violation. Monster.

...and the Clippers go away from Griffin again, and they blow the lead. Stupid.

He would help, but he can't defend point guards and he can't defend bigs. I doubt Spo or Riley would want to move Wade to point so soon, and I doubt Wade would want that as well. To me, Haslem is the biggest loss they can have outside of LeBron, Wade and Bosh.

Copy and paste the code below, filling in the blanks. All correct answers get you five points. No late entries accepted. If you don't turn yours in by the tip-off of the first game, you miss out, no exceptions. Wednesday, November 24th Miami @ Orlando (ESPN) Winner: Leading scorer: Golden State @ Houston Winner: Leading rebounder: Thursday, November 25th Washington @ Atlanta (TNT) Winner: Player with the most threes made: Sacramento @ LA Clippers (TNT) Winner: Leading passer: Friday, November 26th Houston @ Charlotte (ESPN) Winner: Leading shot-blocker: Golden State @ Memphis Winner: Player with the most steals: Saturday, November 27th New Jersey @ Philadelphia Winner: Leading scorer:

Didn't see this game, but by the box, it looks like it was Donte Greene vs. CJ Miles, and everyone else just showed up to cheer.

Smith and Wright are in a competition to see who can have the worst game tonight.

The thing with Lopez is that he actually plays like a big. Channing Frye would rather stand 23 feet from the rim. Without Lopez, the Suns are one of the smallest teams in the NBA. It would work for Nash any other season, because the idea was to pick and roll teams to death with Amare, Marion, and all of their shooters...but with both of them gone, it's just Steve doing two times the work with Father Time creeping up on him. As Charles Barkley said, Father Time is undefeated.

Battier is still there because he's still an effective defensive player. The problem is, he's only effective when the Rockets have Yao in the paint, or another wing defender, because Battier is one of the best at leading his man into traps and help D. If Houston isn't going to play defense, as a team, Battier becomes useless. The less defense played by the team, the more Battier works on that side of the ball...and the less energy he has back on offense.

LeBron defended Granger well, from what I saw...but he got lazy here and there.

Why the hell do you have to motivate two superstars and an all-star? They sure looked motivated during their championship party.

The same exact thing was said about Doc Rivers, actually. Respect isn't earned by championships. Jerry Sloan is one of the most well-respected coaches in NBA history. It shouldn't take a Pat Riley or a Phil Jackson to bring these guys together, because their egos aren't creating the problem. The problem starts with lack of defense in two spots on the floor, and lack of offensive consistency and uncertainty (which is all on Wade, LeBron and Bosh at this time).

The Clippers will be good in the near future if they just start building around Griffin, rather than Gordon.

I'm starting to believe that teams are just letting off the gas, not intentionally, to let the Rockets back into these games. I have watched three of them go this way, where Houston seems to put themselves back into it, only to come up short...and all three, it's basically a cold streak by the other team, where it's really not Houston defending them well, just that team missing shots. Or, Houston gets a lot of open jumpers out of plays that really weren't working for them (and shouldn't work for them) most of the game. I'm not so sure this team is built for the playoffs. Even with Yao, I don't know. They would be able to score more, defend better, but I'm not sure if Yao would be enough to change the entire direction of this team, one that is heading south quicker than most expected.

I hope they fire Spo tonight, so Riley takes over the team and starts taking in the blame for all of the losses. That would be exciting to see, even though I actually like Pat.

Sadly (for the Heat), Udonis was their best defensive big, and the Heat were already struggling with points allowed in the paint.

Yes, you bench Brett because he's injured OR he's too old. It's one or the other. Last year, Vick looked like the perfect backup. Now he's arguably the MVP of this league. It wasn't too long ago that Brady was connecting with Moss for 23 TDs in a season (2007 season?). Had 13 TDs last season, 83 receptions for over 1200 yards. Now he seems to be irrelevant for every team he plays on just one year later, and that's without injury. Let me ask you this: will the Vikings have any chance at the playoffs this year? A realistic chance? Because if you don't think so, you play Jackson now. Everyone wants to see Favre continue the streak and retire with it, but Favre has enough talent around him to win games. He has the receivers (Harvin, Moss at one time, Shiancoe, Berrian, Rice yesterday) and the back to take focus away from the throwing game (Peterson), yet he's only able to put up three total points against the Packers? His QB rating is a 70, from 107 last season? He has 17 picks (most his fault) from just seven last season? That's 22 turnovers altogether for Brett, 71 points for the other team over 10 games. He's playing like he did when he was with the Jets...ironically, the season he was playing injured...and he actually put up better numbers when he was with them. Before the Green Bay game, the Vikings reached the end zone just 12 of 29 times while in the red zone, which is pathetic. They are in the bottom five or six in red zone touchdowns. Seeing what guys like Brady and Manning have done with what most feel are "no-name receivers" this season, you have to wonder why Favre can't dump the ball into the end zone without throwing a pick or incompletions. Childress and Favre are the problems. Childress is gone. Run next week's game with Favre, and if he doesn't lead the Vikings to victory over the depleted Redskins, it's time to sit him.

Because Harrison Barnes has been hyped to be as big of an impact, or bigger, than Kevin Durant was in Texas. Rodney Williams locked him up in that game against Minny. Jeff Taylor played good defense on him in that game against Vandy. UNC isn't defending well, but when the defense isn't performing, it's players like Harrison Barnes that are needed to step up and excel on at least one end of the court. He's supposed to be one of the most NBA-ready talents out there, but it's looking like he's still trying to adjust to college ball.

...lol. I'd say something, but I better not.

I know exactly what Shaq did. The point was, he didn't average 30 a game (ever), didn't lead the league in board or blocks (ever). Has one MVP. Things like that...you go back and ask if he was even as dominant as everyone says. However, he is. Robbed of an MVP, whatever...if the MVP award was given out to the best players in the NBA, like it should be (instead of the best teams), Bryant has many more than just one. Either way, maybe Jordan was robbed of one when Bird got one of his, or maybe someone else...that's not what you were arguing. I don't care how those guys got their 50% FG. That's 35+ guards that did it in that era. Some slashed, some shot the ball. They all did it differently. Conclusion? It must have been easier to shoot 50%, for guards, in the Jordan era, than it is in today's game or back in the late 90's and last decade of basketball. Can you prove to me that Bryant wouldn't have had 50% FG seasons back in the 80s and early 90s? If 35 others can, I don't know. Because it's within the flow of the offense. Off-ball play means nothing if you don't get the pass. You just run around all game long. No screens? No pass? You don't look so dominant out there anymore. Richard Hamilton, Ray Allen...two of the top three greatest off-ball players in the history of the game (throw Reggie in there with them, even though he's retired)...you don't hear anything about their dominance. In fact, among all active players, you won't hear their names mentioned for a LONG time down the list. By the way, the thing with McHale, when I stated his assists and scoring went up when the Celtics started playing through him and dishing it out to Bird on the perimeter...it was a fact. They did go up, coincidently, with Bird's shooting. Larry took more threes because McHale was getting him open. Plus, we talk about Bird's shooting (and everyone else's, for that matter)...what about coaches running more three-point plays for Kobe than they did Bird? That also has a lot to do with field goal percentages. The overall FG% includes threes, as you know. Why are we even amazed at Bird's three-point percentage when he didn't even have one season where he took over three per game (give or take a few tenths of a percentage). http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/arenagi01.html Gilbert Arenas has taken up to eight per game in a season. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/allenra02.html Ray Allen over eight. Before you start talking about threes not being smart shots, they actually win games, and coaches are the ones calling for them, for the most part (as you noted). More shots, lesser efficiency? You can relate them in a way. Jordan's first run (before his first retirement), he shot under 50% twice. Both of those were the only two times that he shot 25+ FGA per game. Before the first retirement, Jordan never exceeded 3.0 3PTA per game. Once he did (during the second), his overall FG% never reached 50% again, yet he was still playing at an MVP level. Just more reason for me to believe that anyone's FG% from the 80s and early 90s should never be compared to those over the last decade or so, just like when you say Wilt's numbers shouldn't be compared to Jordan's, despite the fact that there were a few talented bigs that were defending him over the years (just not in his 100-point game). You simply put their stats and accomplishments on the board, gave your opinion, and you were done with it. All I'm saying is...it's the wrong way to go if you've watched both players. There are too many factors to consider.