Real Deal

Gasol chokes, Fisher is the worst starting point in the league, Shaq crushed Bynum and Pau, and Artest should've never been assigned LeBron. This game was really over in the third, once Cleveland started forcing that strong double on Bryant. Fact of the matter is, Phil Jackson needs to stop [expletive] around with the five-man units, keeping Bryant out of the fourth for seven minutes, and playing old man Fisher for that long. Pathetic game, once again.

Williams, Delonte, it doesn't matter. He'll light Fisher up, whoever it is.

I wouldn't say Duncan is declining that much. He's still giving Pop 20 a game, which he's been doing since 2004-05, and his FG% is the second highest of his career. Ten boards is still awesome...as many as he had in 2007, when he led the Spurs to a championship. The only thing that stands out? Probably the minutes, but that's Pop for you. When we all thought the Spurs would barely squeak in as a playoff team early in November and December, they are now sitting a top four or five in the West, and that's mainly because of Duncan recovering from his injury, combined with Gregg playing him off and on so much. The biggest problem the Spurs have right now is Manu Ginobili, who is performing way below his average play, despite the bench role...and probably Michael Finley, who I don't hear or see much of anymore. And the loss of Bowen, of course. San Antonio is ranked eighth in offense, ninth in defense. They started the season 9-9, and have gone 16-7 since. Duncan may have lost a step as far as speed goes, but I won't go as far as saying he's noticeably on the decline just yet. His last two seasons, not counting this current one, gave him much more trouble than anything else, and it was mainly because of his foot problem.

I'd actually rather have Kobe defending LeBron, and taking it easy on offense...but whatever they want.

Beasley played five minutes less than Wade because the game was already over in the second quarter. Miami just sucked...no offense, no defense, no nothing. At times, Wade was walking back down the court, like he was done.

We wouldn't necessarily have to give up Bynum. We could deal them expirings and Jordan Farmar. New Jersey is more than likely looking to just get rid of his contract, which is why they threw Rafer out of town without exploring trade scenarios. Bynum makes too much money to begin with. They wouldn't take him on for 4-5 seasons, $12 million up to $16 million his last season, especially when they already have an offensively-talented center in Lopez.

Honestly, this would be better for us than the Chris Bosh deal. Fisher needs to go to the bench.

Might as well invite Larry Nance, Julius Erving and Spudd Webb as well. Shaq can't grasp the fact that Vince and Kobe can't get up like they used to be able to. Bryant has had his knees scoped, and Vince has been suffering from knee injuries for a few seasons now. You won't be seeing a reverse 360 windmill from Carter. It's more of a good idea FOR LeBron to win it. How about putting Bron in there with James White, Shannon Brown, Andre Iguodala and some other mean dunkers who can give him a reason to actually try and be creative, instead of powerful?

Hinrich is the better defensive player, but Gordon is no slouch on the defensive end, either. Offensively, I think both are nearly on the same level. Hinrich just doesn't have the green light to do what Gordon does. Hinrich is the better pure shooter and has more range, while Gordon is the better slasher. Running an offense, it goes to Hinrich, hands down. It's not even close, in that regard. Overall better player? Kirk. However, Gordon will turn out to be the better player someday, unless he turns into a Kevin Martin and becomes a selfish player with no intent on distributing the ball, for his team, his teammates or even his own good.

Read it, angry Seattle fans. I remember a handful of you saying there would be no way the Thunder would sell tickets like the elite NBA teams, and that they'd be on sale in three years, and that Oklahoma City was a "cow town full of hicks and farms" (which is the complete opposite of what it really is).

Man, as much as I hate K-State, I was telling every one of my friends that Texas was going down tonight. I don't know why, I just had that gut feeling. But WOW, how about dragging the game out at the end? I swear, the last 50 seconds was about 30 minutes of fouling and fighting, lol.

If it's a repeat of last season, I guess you better worry about Orlando. They are extremely tough to beat when Carter defers to the others, and if Van Gundy ends up changing him by April, everyone out East is in trouble. Don't think that will happen, though.

I'm really shocked the Thunder pulled it off in Atlanta. Big win, especially when they are in that dogfight for the eighth seed out West.

Man, we were awesome with Gasol and Odom in there, and Bynum benched. Bynum was out there for the third, and we blew it, ended up being down nine. Gasol, Odom, Kobe, Brown and Farmar seemed to be our best unit on defense, and Bryant was distributing the ball much, MUCH better with them out there (and passing was excellent as well). Bynum just seems to be a ball-stopper. He holds the ball way too damn long in the post, and you know he won't pass it. Sucks.

Really? I guess I'm bad at math (and Lkr also, haha).

Could be a close game at the end. Texas keeps trying to get back in it.

Yep, I think the Jets can pull this off, and I hope they do.

In other words, he's going to show up, jump in at the last second to shock the crowd, and win the contest. And Gerald Wallace? Really? Eric Gordon shouldn't even be in the "dunk-in" to begin with, either. Sad that the league can't put in real creative dunkers. GO SHANNON BROWN!

Comes on at 9:00 PM EST tonight. Anyone smell an upset?

TIME: 6:40 PM EST TV: FOX

TIME: 3:00 PM EST TV: CBS

I wasn't expecting this many, actually...and I think that means we may have many more, so I'm going to go with what I thought about yesterday: we vote in those that belong in the gallery, and take all others and stick them in forum for OTR promotion signatures.

It's just the all-star game.

Caron Butler. I feel like Kevin Martin is the bigger chemistry-killer, and Butler would more likely defer to Bosh than Martin would...can't be too sure of that, but Butler HAS played as a second or third option before, where Kevin hasn't.

I actually think Brett Favre shouldn't went for the two-point conversion on that last TD, just so this article could be more relevant.