NBA Opening Night : Tension and Drama

The NBA certainly knows how to entertain. What a night of drama and excitement it has been.

Firstly, I must point out that currently being based in the United Kingdom, it is rare to get to see NBA action live. Not only did we have the honour of watching a preseason game between the Miami Heat and the New Jersey Nets a couple of weeks ago in London, but tonight I was simultaneously able to watch the Cleveland Cavs v Boston Celtics game on free-to-air television, whilst also watching the Portland Trail Blazers at Los Angeles Lakers on the internet. Totally legally too.

TNT has a great new invention this season called OT Extra, which broadcasts select games live on the net, including multiple camera angles. They designate a camera to follow a player from each team, as voted by us, the loyal fans. The connection was a bit flaky for me tonight, however I'm sure that this was a factor of both distance across the Atlantic and the fact that every man and his blog was trying to watch the Oden-extravaganza. More on that later.

Celtics 90-85 Cavs (boxscore)

You could tell that it was opening night for a number of reasons. Firstly, everyone was jumping out of their skins with excitement and jitters. That was both beneficial and detrimental in some instances. LeBron was doing his best impression of a super-hero as always for the Cavs and he certainly did a good job of pushing the defending champions all the way on the night of their ring ceremony. His 22 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists were typical King James numbers. However at the end of the night he pulled up short, missing a shot with less than a minute to go which could have brought the Cavs within one point.

Anderson Varejao was performing his jack-in-a-box routine in the waning minutes, as he coralled rebounds that shouldn't have been his and had a dominant effect in the final quarter. He finished with 9 and 9, along with 3 steals.

Mo Williams did not seem to be completely integrated with his new teammates as yet, which is to be expected for a point guard taking charge of new sets. He committed four turnover and five fouls in the game and just did not seem in synch.

Paul Pierce dominated the score board with 27 points. His +/- on the game, of +12 was matched only by Leon Powe, who came off the bench and neutralised the performance of Varejao with a similarly enthusiastic performance, which fans became familiar with in last season's Finals.

It was a tight final couple of minutes, but the Cavs could not spoil the Garden party, as the Celtics enjoyed their championship memories for the last time before embarking on a quest for back-to-back trophies.

Bulls 108-95 Bucks (boxscore)

Greg Oden was not the only #1 pick stepping out for his debut performance tonight. That treat also belonged to Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose, a Chicago native, who had flashes of brilliance during the victory with 11 points, 9 assists and 4 turnovers.

The big question with the Bulls has been how new coach Vinny Del Negro was going to split playing time, particularly in the crowded backcourt. Part of that problem was answered with a recent injury to Larry Hughes. However he started Rose (32 minutes) and athletic Thabo Sefolosha (11) at the guards and brought long-time running mates Kirk Hinrich (26) and Ben Gordon (26) off the bench.

Tyrus Thomas showed some of the promise expected of him with 15 and 10 for a solid double-double, whilst Luol Deng's 21 points led the team's scoring as the Bulls were ahead at every quarter break.

Michael Redd put up 30 points for the Bucks, who are integrating Richard Jefferson (15 points) into the lineup as well as Luke Ridnour at the point, following the departure of Mo Williams. Andrew Bogut played 25 minutes for 9 points and 7 rebounds, despite recent injury concerns.

Lakers 96-76 Blazers (boxscore)

As has been mentioned both on this site and on various others such as Blazers Edge and the Oregonian ad nauseum, these Blazers have been overhyped all offseason long. It's not that this team doesn't have a tonne of potential and it's not that they won't perform well this season and great in the long-term. The thing is, they are just not ready yet.

They are not ready for a Kobe Bryant-driven Lakers team that came so close to a title last season and have since re-loaded with Andrew Bynum (who was unavailable during the playoff run). They are not ready to blow teams away. They are not ready to harness the power and skill of Greg Oden just yet.

Oden has shown many things in the short time he has been on a basketball court. He has shown that he has amazing brute strength and an inordinate amount of skill to go along with that. He has also shown that he is yet to combine that all into one package and this gets him into foul trouble. This was the case early on in this match, as the TNT crew were forced to re-direct their Oden-Cam to Travis Outlaw -- the only Blazers starter who was providing any semblance of a game.

The big rookie did manage to block Bynum early on, in what was always a much-anticipated matchup. He also snared a few rebounds. However the cogs were not turning for the Blazers as they got significantly behind early against a smooth-running Lakers team. It was not until Rudy Fernandez came off the bench that the Portland coaching staff saw some scoring punch on the court. Both Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge failed to impress, shooting horribly from the field in what can only be described as opening night jitters.

The thing that has to be remembered is, this is a Portland team that is integrating four key rookies into an already young squad in an attempt to improve upon a .500 record from last season, playing against a seasoned Lakers squad that can argue itself to be the best team in the league. Anyone who was drinking from the media bandwagon Kool-Aid that said the Blazers were going to come out and surprise the LakeShow were kidding themselves. To suggest the Blazers may do it by the end of the season is another story, but now? No way.

As a Portland fan, this game was difficult to watch. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't see the potential of the team unfolding before our eyes, it's just that it is always hard to watch a game where your team is clearly not in a position to challenge for the victory.

It has almost become a cliché with this Blazers team that injuries are rife. Well, Oden even managed to injure his right foot in this game (according to Yahoo! Sports), limiting him to 12 minutes of action. The extent of the injury is not known at this stage. Let's not go any further into that for the time being.

Outlaw managed 18 points for the Blazers, followed by Fernandez with 16. Joel Przybilla proved his workmanlike self, with 11 rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench.

For the home side, Pau Gasol scored 15 points (most of them early on), whilst Kobe went for 23 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 turnovers in what was a sloppy game. Trevor Ariza proved why he has been in consideration for a starting role, with 11 points in 24 minutes. The "other" big fella, Bynum, finished with 8 points, 3 rebounds and 3 blocks in 27 minutes.

The Lakers cruised through this game but surely have plenty of things to fine tune, as tonight's oppposition was clearly not on the top of their game. Portland will be looking to get the "Big Three" combination of Oden-Roy-Aldridge better acquainted as the season goes on and will be crossing their fingers that Oden does not have any lasting injury.

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Bynum and Farmar can read women's minds (and fight Chuck Norris)

What women want. Andrew Bynum knows it. Jordan Farmar knows it. Now you too can know the secret, for just 10 instalments of $39.95 + p&p.

Well, perhaps the last part isn't totally correct. However, both Bynum and Farmar said in a recent interview that they know what women are thinking and there are a lot of men out there who would too like to know the secret. Do they teach this in the NBA rookie program? Perhaps that was the study course that Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur were brushing up on?

NBA.com Lakers reporter, Mike Trudell, asked the Laker youngsters a series of "would you rather?" questions. I have to admit that I was thoroughly impressed with the answers that the two came up with for many of the questions. To the question, "would you rather be able to communicate with animals, or be able to read women's minds?" both went the animal route:

Bynum: Communicate with animals, actually. I think you already know what’s on a woman’s mind, so definitely the animals ...

Farmar: Animals. I can already read women’s minds.

They were both pretty assertive on that point.

Another question asked would they prefer to meet Chuck Norris in a cage fight or match Kimbo Slice in a street rumble. Both opted for Norris. Obviously neither of them have seen this site.

Interestingly, when given the choice of a Laker teammate to select for a 2-on-2 battle, big boy Bynum opted for his big man cohort Pau Gasol, rather than Kobe. Perhaps it was also because Bynum has asked Pau to take him to Spain to introduce him to some Hispanic ladies (another question in the interview alluded to this).

Go ahead and read it, it's a quality read. I have to admit that the reason I opened the article in the first place was one of shock. I read the headline: "Would You Rather: Andrew Bynum/Jordan Farmar" as a serious question to the reader. I mean, who in their right mind would select Jordan Farmar over Andrew Bynum (apart from an angry Kobe Bryant in a parking lot a year ago talking to some kids with a video camera)?











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Shaq Video Interview : On Kobe, Legacy & Dancing

This is a great video interview with Shaquille O'Neal, courtesy of ESPN. As always, you have to admire Shaq's confidence, openness and ability to interact with the media. The guy is just a reporter's dream. Here he talks about his relationship with Kobe during the Laker years and the fact that those titles might not have come without all of the friction; he talks about his legacy after basketball; he calls himself the Best Big Man Dancer In The World (hard to argue with); and he says that he called Kobe immediately after that "tell me how my a$$ tastes" rap and apologised and Kobe understood.  It is clear that he respects  Bryant a lot now and that everything in the past is water under the bridge. This may be a mellowed Shaq, but he's still 320lbs of fun!

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Does winning make Team USA any less arrogant?

I was interested to read this entry on You Been Blinded, which quotes Glen Saville, Australian Boomer, as saying that all of Team USA, except for Kobe Bryant, "carried on like pork chops."

To translate that from the Aussie vernacular, what 'Sav' is trying to say is, that Kobe was the only player on Team USA not to make a tool of himself in terms of his attitude towards his opponents.

The easy approach to take in this instance, by American supporters, is to say something along the lines of, "you lost, you're just bitter! USA! USA! USA!" All you need to do is check the comments section in almost any Olympics-related article to find these sorts of attitudes springing forth.

It's sometimes hard to look from the outside looking in and realise how people look from the perspective of others, but perhaps the perceived aura of arrogance that surrounds USA squads is not totally unfounded.

Now of course the media has driven us to death with the moniker "Redeem Team." This name had a two-fold meaning. The first part was obviously for USA to reclaim their place as the top basketball nation in the world. The second, less emphasised part, was to regain dignity after gaining some poor press based on their apparent arrogance and disrespect for both their nation and their opponents.

Kobe, LeBron and Co certainly fulfilled the first part of the redemption, but did they achieve the second part? That is the question we pose here today.

Now, back to Saville's claim that the USA (less Bryant) acted like pork chops in their match up. Australians are known as some of the best competitors sports-wise in the world; a country of only 20 million people that competes like one 10 times that size. Australians are used to a fairly large level of success and do not need to bring whining or complaining into it in order to please their nation with their performance. This is why it seems unlikely that Saville (along with some of his teammates) was complaining unnecessarily that USA were not being totally sporting about the affair.

The debate on this topic is pretty pointless amongst sports fans, as none of us were on the court to witness the reality of it all, however I will point you to look at the final handshakes after USA had disposed of Australia quite cleanly. From my viewing of that sequence, Bryant was indeed the only player to make an effort to talk to each player he shook hands with and in particular LeBron James did not appear to even look the players in the eye as he shook hands with them all.

You may say, "big deal." However it must be remembered that many of these players are to an extent role models of their opponents and are looked up to. James is one of the most marketed sports personalities on the planet. The least he could do after knocking over an opponent is to shake hands, look them in the eye and commend them on their performance, just the same as any good sportsman does even in their local rec league.

The 2008 Olympics are history now. The Americans won the Gold. Did they redeem themselves?

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Spain 45 - 61 USA : at the half

If you haven't been keeping up with the Ball Don't Lie live blog of the match, or watching it on TV, well you should be... but regardless, here's how the first half has panned out so far.

1st Quarter

USA seemed to be going right against their strengths by using the tried and true "get the ball to the big guy" offence, aka the Bill Cartwright offence. They kept on pounding the ball into Dwight Howard with varying success.

On the other end, Rudy Fernandez was not shy in putting up a few outside shots, whilst the ball was not yet going into Pau Gasol very much.

Spain certainly are not shy in running with USA -- taking the ball in quickly off the inbounds on more than one occasion.

Plenty of physicality early, on both sides, but in particular LeBron and Melo are dishing a bit of a beat-down out to the Spanish bigs, apparently in an attempt to disguise their lack of height.

Tight early on, with USA up 9-7 with 6:29 to go.

Dwight Howard goal-tended a shot into the stands. A shot which was well and truly short of the mark, as more of an intimidatory move. Stupid if you ask me.

Kobe shows that there is no love between NBA teammates when it comes to the Olympics, as he levels Pau Gasol!

Much of the Spanish offence is going through Rudy Fernandez and Rayez.

Jose Calderon is handling the USA pressure well. A nice fading baseline jumper over Jason Kidd. When will he be subbed for CP3/Deron?

And here we go at the 4:30 mark, CP3 and Chris Bosh come into the game. Spain replies with Juan Carlos Navarro and Marc Gasol.

USA is double-teaming Calderon A LOT. It's not doing much so far.

17-year old Ricky Rubio gets a run with 3:41 to go in the 1st. And he certainly does not look flustered against his higher profile opponents. You go boy.

3:20 to go and Wade gets a signature steal at half-court for a dunk. He follows that up with another steal in traffic in the paint.

USA is pressuring Rubio. Twice he draws fouls at halfcourt, from CP3 and then Deron.

At quarter time, it's USA 31-22.

2nd Quarter

Rubio v Kidd -- young v old. Rubio still doesn't looked fazed.

Prince comes in and hits a trey straight away.

Juan Carlos Navarro makes a foray into the paint and hits the floater.

The physicality continues as Howard gets called for a charge.

LeBron is looking very pumped in this game -- he has that look in his eyes.

As the 2nd quarter goes on, USA starts to draw this game out a bit. They are leading in three point shooting and are still killing with their patented fast breaks.

Spain ends the quarter with some full-court defence of their own, which seems surprisingly successful and pressures USA out of some shots.

54-36 USA at the half.

Today's warnings : 10 August, 2008

In a full day for Men's Olympic Basketball, let's Czech out some of the links around the interweb:

• Ball Don't Lie liveblogged the USA v China game, so if you want to feel like you were there watching the game along with various other internet denizons, knock yourself out!
• FIBA YouTube interview with Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian.
• Brandon Roy has his eye on Rudy (Rudolfo) Fernandez at the Olympics, with thoughts of next season with the Blazers. I imagine he would have enjoyed what he saw today vs Greece where Rudy led his Spanish team to a solid win over a key rival.
• Carolyn at And One talks about the death of Grandpa Munster, basketball fan.
• A Spurs fan hating on their team's outlook (via Truehoop).
• Yao started out sooo well against Kobe; shame China couldn't keep it up.
  
  

That Jordan fella, he still got it

Courtesy of youbeenblinded.com, here is video evidence that Michael Jordan could still school you, and the best kid at your school as well... and that guy at the bar that says he doesn't have it any more...

The video speaks for itself. Sit in awe.

Today's warnings : 23 July, 2008

Circum-navigating the world wide web quicker than you can say Sarunas Marciulionis, it's today's warnings:

FROM THE BLOGS

• Truehoop: analysing the potential homophobia in a new Nike advertising campaign.
• Ball Don't Lie: Skeets never stops bringing the bargains at ya! How about some champagne that may have possibly, by chance, speculatively come from the Chicago Bulls 1997 Championship locker room?
• Basketbawful: continuing to bring you some of the worst of the NBA, in a good way...
• Brewhoop: a final wrap up on the Bucks' Summer League activities.
• And One: LeBron's injured his ankle, but it's not serious, or it could be, but it's probably not. Sehr gut.
• Cuzoogle: some great photoshop work on some new NBA movie titles not coming to the an NBA retailer near you.
• John Rillie: addressing probably the hottest topic in Australian NBL basketball right now, regarding the new franchise the Sydney Spirit (or whatever they're to be called after the Bendigo Spirit have had their crack at the name). It's a hard job trying to convince the public that a new franchise has been born when they are essentially in the same location as their forefathers (the Razorbacks) and have mostly the same squad (bar one big name signing). The new OKC team is in a similar situation, albeit they have actually moved to another city. From what I'm hearing on the Ozhoops Boards amongst some of the keener fans, it will be very hard to draw fans across from the old Sydney Kings fold, as it will be difficult to ascertain which Razorbacks fans classify this as a new franchise and which are clinging to the former team's history. Time will tell...
• SportsVideoGames: KG on the cover of NBA 2K9.

FROM THE MAINSTREAM

• OKC: a suggestion on the mascot for the new team.
• Kobe Bryant: trying to follow in Jordan's path.
• China: Yao Ming isn't scared of anyone. "I am very sure we can beat Angola. We lost to them in Hangzhou, but we were not in our best shape last week," he said. "Their players are not very competitive, and I don't think they are able to pose us any real threat at the Games.
  "We are not afraid of Germany either. Yi Jianlian has improved tremendously after playing one season in the NBA and he can limit Nowitzki. And I can take care of Chris Kaman."
• Golden State: Marcus Williams is a Warrior. They're not necessarily looking as good as last year, but certainly younger and with some solid foundations. Out with Baron, Pietrus and Barnes and in with Turiaf, Williams and Maggette. They won't be a playoff team, but we knew that already.
• Matt Geiger: people are being nasty to poor little Matt and not buying his house for the $21m price they promised. Maybe Latrell Sprewell can give him some tips on feeding his kids in the meantime.