Blake Griffin scored nine of his 30 points in the final 5:18,
and the Los Angeles Clippers wrapped up their two-game preseason
sweep of the Lakers with a 108-103 victory on Wednesday night.
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Tag Archives: Chris Paul
Clippers sweep Lakers in preseason
Lakers’ Odom shows up late to camp
Lakers forward Lamar Odom showed up more than 90 minutes late
for Los Angeles’ first workout of training camp on Friday, and then
left early after a meeting with general manager Mitch Kupchak.
Chris Paul shows up for Hornets’ camp
One day after Chris Paul learned his trade to the Los Angeles
Lakers wasn’t going to happen, he showed up nonetheless for the
opening of Hornets training camp in suburban New Orleans.
What Hath the King Wrought? A Wave of Panicky NBA Trades
Filed under: Cavaliers, Jazz, Knicks, Nuggets
One more day. NBA teams have less than 24 hours to take their franchises to Def-Con 1. Only until 3:00 ET Thursday afternoon to make sure they don’t get LeBron-ified, to avoid becoming next season’s Cleveland Cavaliers.
In hindsight, it appears that while “The Decision” by LeBron James merely raked most NBA followers’ last natural nerve, it scared team executives witless.
Maybe none of the trades completed and proposed as the deadline approaches will turn out to be as enormous overreactions as they appear now. Maybe Carmelo Anthony will be for the Knicks exactly as the Knicks expect him — and, it seems, desperately needs him — to be. It’s possible, meanwhile, that the Nuggets, looking horrified by what they had to do to avoid Anthony walking away from them this summer, will be able to rebuild with the pieces from the three-way trade as it could have by simply dropping his contract off their books.
And maybe the Jazz really needed to part ways with Deron Williams as hastily as they did on Wednesday — a season ahead of his potential free agency. And maybe the Nets‘ mortgaging of their future will help them realize their dream, whether it’s escalating its arms race with the soon-to-be-borough-neighboring Knicks, or spending the resources they had saved up to throw at the Nuggets for Anthony, or satisfying their new owner’s ego, or all of the above.
That’s a lot of maybes.
Signs Pointing Stronger to Carmelo Anthony Joining Knicks
Filed under: Heat, Hornets, Knicks, Nets, Nuggets, NBA Rumors
LOS ANGELES — It’s looking more like New York or bust for Carmelo Anthony.
The chances of the New Jersey Nets getting Anthony do not appear high and Anthony sure didn’t sound like someone Saturday with much interest in remaining long-term with Denver. That would leave the Knicks to try to complete a deal with the Nuggets by Thursday’s trade deadline.
Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov said through a spokesperson Saturday he had no plans to meet here during All-Star Weekend with Anthony, and Anthony also said he had no plans to meet with Prokhorov. However, the New York Daily News reported that the two met Saturday night in Los Angeles. ESPN.com later confirmed the report, and reported Anthony was noncommittal after the meeting.
Regardless, it still doesn’t appear Anthony has much of a desire to sign a contract extension with the Nets. Sources told FanHouse on Dec. 20 that Anthony had no interest in signing long-term with the Nets, and there has been no indication anything has changed.
What looks to have changed is any public stance Anthony has made about wanting to remain long-term in Denver. Anthony’s stock line has been that remaining with the Nuggets is one of his options and he said Feb. 9 he would “take a hard look” at that if not dealt by the trade deadline
LeBron Is Peerless, and Not Just in NBA
Filed under: Heat
OK. So LeBron James occasionally has flashed signs this season of having flesh and blood like the rest of us.
Just occasionally, though.
There was Sunday in Boston, for instance, where LeBron wasn’t his clutch self down the stretch at the foul line. Plus, he was hounded into an average scoring game by the Celtics’ Rajon Rondo.
Not only that, courtesy of an 85-82 loss, the Miami Heat continued to show that LeBron and the rest of their Big Two and a Half (Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh) remain a work in progress by losing for the fourth time in five games against one of the NBA’s top teams.
Still, nobody tops LeBron as the Most Valuable Player.
I’m talking about the NBA, of course. But I’m also talking about LeBron as the undisputed MVP among players throughout the four major sports leagues in North America. He still has to find a way to win it all, but that’s a different column. As for this one, nobody is a more significant force for any team in any of those leagues than this defensive end of a basketball player who is transforming the Heat into a championship-caliber bunch for the first time in five years.
Chris Paul Tops Great Era for NBA Point Guards
ORLANDO, Fla. — This is the fourth consecutive year that Hornets point guard Chris Paul will be going to the NBA All-Star Game, but it’s not getting old yet.
It’s only getting better.
“It’s a huge honor, maybe now more than ever,” Paul said Friday. “At my position, in the Western Conference, it really means something to be in that game.”
Paul will be starting for the West next weekend at the All-Star Game in Los Angeles, further evidence that he indeed has become the league’s premier point guard in what is becoming a golden era for point guards.
“To me, it’s the toughest, deepest position in the league now,” Paul told FanHouse. “Think about it. Steve Nash and Tony Parker didn’t even make the All-Star Game. And those are great point guards.”
Paul will be getting his second starting assignment in the league’s showcase event. He also started in 2009. He was voted in by the coaches as a reserve in 2008 and 2010.
The Works: How Joy Division Explains the All-Star Starters
Filed under: NBA All-Star Game, The Works
Today in The Works: Joy Division and the All-Star Game, a match made where time stops moving.
Over at GQ.com, the illustrious Kevin Love has a blog entitled “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. That’s a reference to the mega-gloomy Manchester outfit whose genius lead singer Ian Curtis killed himself at the height of their powers. On the surface, nothing to do with basketball, right? Except Kevin Love himself really likes that title, which got us thinking: What if we picked a Joy Division song that represented each player in this year’s All-Star starting line-ups? Might we not learn something new about these players, this music, and ourselves? And most importantly, would we have so much fun that we would never, ever die, especially not by our own hand?
Charley Rosen: NBA Championship Odds
Filed under: Bulls, Celtics, Hawks, Heat, Hornets, Jazz, Knicks, Lakers, Magic, Mavericks, Nuggets, Spurs, Trail Blazers, NBA Gambling, Thunder
Thirty teams but only one will win the last game of the season. Which teams, then, have the best chances of emerging as the 2011 champion?
Notwithstanding injuries and radical trades, these are my highly subjective odds-to-win-it-all with only those teams that are currently above .500 being considered.
Boston Celtics 1:2 – This a veteran team with championship experience. They play intimidating body-to-body defense anchored by plenty of beef in the middle. Boston’s offense is precise, unselfish, and resourceful with the key factor being the ability of Ray Allen to plug 3-balls to keep the defense spread. They also might be the hungriest team in the running.
San Antonio Spurs 1:1 — The only team whose discipline at both ends can compare to Boston’s. In the past, San Antonio’s postseason success was hugely dependent upon the accuracy of their outside shooting. But Richard Jefferson has found his niche and his jumper, plus the bull’s-eye shooting of undrafted rookie Gary Neal has been a significant factor off the bench. The clutch play of San Antonio’s old reliables — Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and (to a lesser extent) Tony Parker — should not be underestimated. Nor should Gregg Popovich’s strategy of limiting his starters’ minutes until the minutes really count.
The Works: All-Star Game Alternatives
Filed under: NBA All-Star Game, The Works
Today in The Works: How to fix the All-Star Game. For real.
Every year, the All-Star Game happens, and every year, there are angry fans galore at the players selected. Some do so out of rank homer-ism; others, a inflated sense of morals and justice. Just as bad, though, is the stale nature of the game itself. For too long, the West was the best, and the East got slaughtered every year. Now, things are leveling out, but it could still use a shake-up.
Bigs vs. Smalls: Red Auerbach’s Celtics teams used to play regular big vs. small scrimmages, which the guards and wings usually won on the strength of their quickness and passing. Those contests informed Don Nelson’s entire coaching philosophy, for better or worse, and the NBA certainly looks like a game of speed and skill rather than brute force these days. On the other hand, tall stars increasingly find themselves playing outside of the paint — whether it’s Kevin Durant as a wing scorer or LeBron James as a do-everything beast.
Those new realities suggest that a contemporary matchup between big and small stars wouldn’t necessarily go to the guards. Divide teams by the median height — let’s assume it’s 6-foot-8, give or take an inch — and enjoy the bizarre matchups like LeBron on Chris Paul, or Kevin Garnett on Kobe Bryant, or a swarming turnover-based attack by the smalls that leads to as many fast-break points as possible. It might be hard to set up systems in time to make this game as interesting as possible, but it’s experiment worth trying. It’ll entertain and teach us something about where basketball stands in the modern age.
