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The Works: Midseason Matters

February 17, 2011   Bethlehem Shoals and Eric Freeman   No comments

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Today in The Works: Who will win the awards?

Who Gets The Gold?

Eric Freeman: It seems like the voters often decide on their MVP several months before the season ends, so this is as good a time as any. LeBron James has the Heat riding high after a shaky start, and he could end up the winner. But it seems like Derrick Rose‘s year — he’s stepped his game up and the Bulls are looking like contenders. Sometimes, that’s enough to win this award.

Bethlehem Shoals: It seems like everybody is riding high, the way you talk about it. Look, I’m going to give it to you straight: LeBron James is the best player in the game. And after that shaky start, he’s really made that Heat team his own, or at least found a way to assert himself so that every lesser player — including that dynamo Dwyane Wade — ends up following his rhythms. And that’s not a bad thing. James, contrary to popular belief, isn’t a selfish jerk, he does a lot of things on the court and only really takes over when it’s execution time. Derrick Rose? You’ve lost it. Nice year, nice team, but they aren’t there yet. It’s called Most Valuable, not Most Improved.

 

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Cavs Stun Lakers, Avenge 55-Point Loss

February 16, 2011   FanHouse Newswire   No comments

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CLEVELAND (AP) — The Lakers hit the All-Star break broken.

Looking nothing like two-time defending NBA champions, they dropped their third straight game, a stunning 104-99 loss Wednesday night to the Cleveland Cavaliers — the league’s worst team, which avenged a 55-point embarrassment against Los Angeles last month.

Ramon Sessions came off the bench and scored a season-high 32 points for the Cavs, who were beaten 112-57 by the Lakers on Jan. 11. That loss was No. 11 in a league-record streak that eventually reached 26 before Cleveland ended it last week with an overtime win against L.A.’s less-heralded squad, the Clippers.

Pau Gasol had 30 points and 20 rebounds for the Lakers.

Playing the finale of a seven-game road trip, the Lakers spent much of the night looking as if they were already on vacation. They threw errant passes, forced outside shots and couldn’t catch the Cavs down the stretch despite a frantic comeback.

 

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Lakers Topple Knicks in Gradual Return to Champion Form

February 12, 2011   Robert Karpeles   No comments

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Phil JacksonNEW YORK — Going up the elevator for perhaps the last time ever as an opposing coach at Madison Square Garden, Phil Jackson said he was thinking that it didn’t smell like elephants.

Jackson, who said this will be his last season, was referring to the Barnum and Bailey Circus that takes place at MSG each spring.

Although he was joking, it was coincidental that Jackson mentioned elephants, since that is exactly the way, up until the last four games, that his team has played like at times this season: slow, fat, lethargic, lazy and any other adjectives used to describe an elephant.

That is until the last four games, where the Lakers have all of a sudden begun to jell, playing with more passion, focus, energy, and any other adjectives used to describe a champion. And most importantly, the Lakers have slowly addressed the issues that have plagued them all season. They continued their hot streak, routing the Knicks 113-96 Friday night.

“For four games we have been consistent and we have to make it continue,” Pau Gasol said. ” We are turning it up. We got more confidence in what we are doing. We’re more active out there and the attitude is better. Still got a long way to go but we’re getting there.”

 

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The Works: Searching for the NBA’s Fairest Paycheck

February 04, 2011   Bethlehem Shoals and Eric Freeman   No comments

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Today in The Works: Forget overpaid and underpaid. Which NBA player gets exactly what he deserves?

The Price Is Right

Fans and writers like to hem and haw over which players are overpaid and underpaid, but rarely do they focus on which athletes are paid just the right amount. In part, that’s because it’s easier to pay the bills by resorting to hyperbole. We love to lambast players who are spoiled bums, or gloat over our ability to spot the bargains (or point out our team signed them). But these are hardly the holy grail of payroll science.

However, the very notion of someone being compensated for what they’re worth is an odd one full of enigmas and riddles. With that in mind, we sat down for a chat about what it means to be fairly paid, who is the most fairly paid player in the NBA, and how the league should structure salaries in general. Please enjoy.

 

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Ron Artest Reflects on Phil Jackson, Mental Health and More

February 02, 2011   Sam Amick   No comments

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LOS ANGELES — There’s no fear or loathing on this campaign trail.

There’s Ron Artest in a child-like state, sprinting to and fro on the beach on a sunny Saturday afternoon in January. And rest assured, no one is enjoying this mental health initiative more than the lead spokesman himself.

This isn’t a public relations gimmick, though. This is the starting small forward of the NBA‘s defending champions hanging out with nearly 20 of his favorite Twitter followers, a blissful man of the Tweeple playing barefoot quarterback in a game of two-hand touch football that kicked off an hour late because, well, the basketball job still takes precedence and the Zen Master kept the Lake Show late at this day’s practice.

 

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Charley Rosen: NBA’s Most Over/Underrated

January 26, 2011   Charley Rosen   No comments

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Overrated

LeBron James heads the list because despite his gargantuan numbers he still has to prove that he’s not a quitter (remember the concluding two games of last season’s Celtics-Cavs series?) and not a loser. Moreover, although he’s become celebrated for running down and blocking breakaways, his posture is still too upright for him to play adequate defense against quick-footed opponents.

Vince Carter also habitually posts gaudy numbers but has been a choker throughout his career.

Dwight Howard is a good defensive helper, but only when a savvy offense hasn’t sucked him out of position. At the same time, he’s unable to adequately defend opposing big men who can turn-face-and-go. Plus, instead of elevating his own performance he’d rather whine in public about his teammates’ shortcomings.

Kenyon Martin has a big mouth and a small game.

Danilo Gallinari is a streaky shooter with a questionable handle and slow-footed defense. If he played anywhere else but New York he’d never be touted as a future superstar.

Stephen Jackson can’t differentiate between a shot and a bad shot.

 

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Lakers, Artest Halt Durant, Though Thunder Star Says Otherwise

January 18, 2011   Sam Amick   No comments

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LOS ANGELES – The Lakers-Oklahoma City rematch was a multi-dimensional affair.

The older and wiser two-time defending champions repeated their postseason style in this regular-season setting on Monday night at Staples Center, downing these young Thunder 101-94 with the sort of approach that helped them win the memorable first-round series in six games last April.

In a game that was the first matchup since the series that some considered the most entertaining of them all, Kobe Bryant did adequate damage (21 points on 7 of 12 shooting, seven assists and five turnovers), Pau Gasol followed his mildly-successful suit (21 points on 8 of 19 shooting, seven rebounds), Lamar Odom picked up the slack (16 points on six of nine shooting and seven rebounds) and the rare sight of Derek Fisher scoring points (a season-high 15 of them, in fact) was too much for this dangerous Thunder team to handle.

But this matchup was always more about Kevin Durant than anything else, the young star taking the big stage for the first time to see if he could match the magnitude of the moment. But this time, just like last time, Artest stood in his way.

Whether Durant wanted to acknowledge it or not.

 

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Karma No Match for Blake Griffin as Clippers Beat Lakers

January 16, 2011   Sam Amick   No comments

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Blake Griffin, Pau GasolLOS ANGELES — Maybe LeBron James was right.

“Karma can be a “b****,” as he reminded us recently, and so it was perfectly fitting that Donald T. Sterling was nowhere to be found at Staples Center on Sunday afternoon.

The shameful Clippers owner didn’t deserve this kind of fun.

As if beating the Lakers 99-92 wasn’t reason enough for the loyal Clippers Nation to rejoice, there was — for the first time in quite some time — a bigger picture at play that was actually worth looking at. Nine wins in 13 games. An identity forming. Young stars like Blake Griffin, Eric Gordon and DeAndre Jordan rising and an old one re-emerging in Baron Davis.

Yes, even Sterling — who had a prior engagement and thus wasn’t present to heckle his own players — would’ve been cheering at this one. And in case you wondered, this wasn’t the Lake-Show vs. the Blake-Show by any stretch of Jerry Buss’ imagination.

 

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Video: Four Players Ejected After Lakers-Clippers Scuffle

January 16, 2011   Brett Pollakoff   No comments

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The Clippers came from seven points down with just over seven minutes remaining to beat the Lakers on Sunday, and Blake Griffin was largely the man responsible. After a slow start due to some early foul trouble, Griffin exploded for 10 points and eight rebounds in the final quarter, and played hard to the very end — something that obviously didn’t sit well with Lamar Odom.

With 5.7 seconds remaining and the Clippers’ Randy Foye hitting the second of two free throws to put his team up nine, Griffin and Odom got tangled up as the two fought for position. Odom didn’t like the fact that Griffin was working so hard for a potential rebound with the game already decided, so he took him by the jersey and flung Griffin out of bounds.

Video of the incident can be seen in the clip below.

 

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Lakers Embarrass Cavs, 112-57, in Remarkable Defensive Performance

January 11, 2011   FanHouse Newswire   No comments

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Los Angeles LakersLOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Lakers humiliated the Cleveland Cavaliers while sending them to their 11th straight loss, rolling to a 112-57 victory on Tuesday night in their best defensive performance in the shot clock era.

Ron Artest and Andrew Bynum each scored 15 points, while Pau Gasol had 13 points and 14 rebounds. Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and Shannon Brown also scored 13 points for the defending NBA champion Lakers, who led the league’s worst team by 32 points at halftime on their way to winning their fifth in a row.

Reserves Alonzo Gee scored 12 points and Ramon Sessions 10. Cleveland’s point total was a record low by a Lakers opponent. The Cavs shot 30 percent, were outscored 52-28 in the paint and committed 19 turnovers in losing for the 21st time in their last 22 games. They fell to 8-30 overall, 3-18 on the road and 1-5 against the Western Conference.

 

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