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Lakers Defense Holds Off Thunder

February 27, 2011   FanHouse Newswire   No comments

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Pau Gasol had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Kobe Bryant scored 17 points and the Los Angeles Lakers extended their cushion over Oklahoma City in the Western Conference standings by beating the Thunder 90-87 on Sunday.

Andrew Bynum added 16 points and 10 rebounds, but the Lakers weren’t able to simply overpower a Thunder team that added Kendrick Perkins for interior toughness but won’t get him in the lineup for a couple weeks.Lamar Odom missed a pair of free throws with 10.9 seconds left to leave the door open for Oklahoma City, but Kevin Durant and James Harden each missed 3-pointers from the top of the key in the closing moments.

Russell Westbrook led Oklahoma City with 22 points and Durant scored 21. The Thunder were held to a season-low 31 second-half points in suffering their first three-game losing streak of the season.

 

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Blake Griffin, Four Celtics Headline 2011 NBA All-Star Reserves

February 03, 2011   FanHouse Newswire   No comments

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Blake GriffinNEW YORK (AP) — Blake Griffin is going to his first All-Star game, and Kevin Garnett matched an NBA record with his 14th straight selection as one of a record-tying four Boston Celtics headed for the midseason event.

Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen will accompany Garnett, who equaled Jerry West, Shaquille O’Neal and Karl Malone for the most consecutive selections. The Celtics joined the 2006 Detroit Pistons as the only teams to have four players picked as reserves by the coaches.

Griffin, the Rookie of the Year favorite of the Clippers, will be playing on his home floor in the Feb. 20 game at Staples Center. Joining him on the Western Conference team were Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili of the NBA-leading Spurs; forwards Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas and Pau Gasol of the Lakers; and guards Deron Williams of Utah and Russell Westbrook of Oklahoma City, who joins Griffin as the lone first-time selections.

Chris Bosh will go to Los Angeles with Miami teammates LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, who were elected as starters. The other East reserves picked Thursday were Atlanta’s Joe Johnson and Al Horford.

 

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Blake Griffin, Four Celtics Headline 2011 NBA All-Star Reserves

February 03, 2011   FanHouse Newswire   No comments

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Blake GriffinNEW YORK (AP) — Blake Griffin is going to his first All-Star game, and Kevin Garnett matched an NBA record with his 14th straight selection as one of a record-tying four Boston Celtics headed for the midseason event.

Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen will accompany Garnett, who equaled Jerry West, Shaquille O’Neal and Karl Malone for the most consecutive selections. The Celtics joined the 2006 Detroit Pistons as the only teams to have four players picked as reserves by the coaches.

Griffin, the Rookie of the Year favorite of the Clippers, will be playing on his home floor in the Feb. 20 game at Staples Center. Joining him on the Western Conference team were Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili of the NBA-leading Spurs; forwards Dirk Nowitzki of Dallas and Pau Gasol of the Lakers; and guards Deron Williams of Utah and Russell Westbrook of Oklahoma City, who joins Griffin as the lone first-time selections.

Chris Bosh will go to Los Angeles with Miami teammates LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, who were elected as starters. The other East reserves picked Thursday were Atlanta’s Joe Johnson and Al Horford.

 

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2011 NBA All-Star Starters Revealed, What About the Reserves?

January 27, 2011   Chris Tomasson   No comments

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Denver coach George Karl likes to say each All-Star squad should have 15 players, rather than 12.

It’s a great idea for the West this season, with there about to be some serious snubs. As for the East, 10 seems a better number this season in a conference that after the top teams has as much depth as the local park’s kiddie pool.

Perhaps the East should concede two spots to the West. Throw in that Houston’s Yao Ming, named the West starting center, will miss the Feb. 20 Game in Los Angeles, and that would give the West 15 players with All-Star recognition.

The starters were announced Thursday night, and there wasn’t anything to complain about other than how ridiculous it was that fans (hello, China) continued to vote for Yao in bunches even after it was announced Dec. 17 he was out for the season with a foot injury. Even before then, he was averaging 10.2 points in a meager five games.

The East starters will be Orlando’s Dwight Howard at center, Miami’s LeBron James and New York’s Amar’e Stoudemire at forward and Miami’s Dwyane Wade and Chicago’s Derrick Rose at guard. Other than Yao, West starters named were Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant and Denver’s Carmelo Anthony at forward and the Lakers‘ Kobe Bryant and New Orleans’ Chris Paul at guard.

Now, on to the reserves. After the coaches cast their ballots, here’s who should be announced next Thursday as well as which players might be ticked off:

 

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Russell Westbrook Low Key as All-Star Campaigning Heats Up

January 18, 2011   Chris Tomasson   No comments

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DENVER — Russell Westbrook doesn’t want any buttons or bumper stickers distributed in an effort to get him in the NBA All-Star Game.

Then again, he might not be able to stop Kevin Durant from campaigning for him.

“If they don’t put him in (the All-Star Game), it’s the ultimate snub,” Durant, the Oklahoma City forward who is almost certain to be a starter in the Feb. 20 game, said Tuesday about his teammate after the Thunder practiced at the Pepsi Center in preparation for Wednesday’s game against Denver.

You won’t get those type of comments out of Westbrook, though. He did some serious downplaying about possibly making his first All-Star appearance in Los Angeles, his hometown.

“Honestly, I don’t really care,” said the point guard. “To tell you the truth, it’s not a big deal. You get voted in, you get voted in.”

Yeah, right. That’s the word from Durant, who doesn’t buy what Westbrook says.

 

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Lakers and Thunder Finally Meet Again

January 16, 2011   A.J. Perez   No comments

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As the NBA season reaches its midpoint, the Los Angeles Lakers have yet to play two conference opponents: the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Dallas Mavericks.

The Lakers host both this week with Oklahoma City heading to Staples Center Monday night as part of a special Martin Luther King Day doubleheader on TNT.

“We normally would have played them by now,” Lakers guard Kobe Bryant told The Oklahoman. “I haven’t seen them (play this season). I know (Kevin) Durant is being Durant and Russell (Westbrook) is being Russell. I’m looking forward to seeing them.”

TNT analyst and former NBA coach Mike Fratello is as well, a contest that could preview the Western Conference finals. The two teams met in the first round of the playoffs last season.

 

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Ranking the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Candidates

January 06, 2011   Tim Povtak   No comments

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Dwight Howard and Andrew BogutThe first time the Milwaukee Bucks played the Orlando Magic this season, center Andrew Bogut had 31 points and 18 rebounds, dominating the game from start to finish.

The second time on Wednesday night, he had six points and seven rebounds, fouling out in frustration. The difference wasn’t his play. The difference was the defense against him, specifically the guy playing opposite him.

Dwight Howard didn’t play the first time — and it made all the difference.

There is a reason Howard is the early favorite to win his third consecutive Defensive Player of the Year Award.

“There is no one in the league who has a bigger impact on a game than Dwight,” crowed Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. “He anchors everything we do.”

Howard’s dominance — he has led the NBA in both blocked shots and rebounding the past two seasons — has allowed Van Gundy to turn the Magic into one of the league’s best defensive teams, even with a roster filled with below-average defensive players.

“We don’t have a whole lot of answers for him (Howard),” said Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles. “But nobody else does, either.”

Although perimeter players like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James can smother opponents, the award has been dominated by rebounders and shot blockers, which is something that Howard still does. Only Ron Artest (2004) and Gary Payton (1996) have won the award from outside the paint in the last 20 years.


Let’s look at the early contenders for the award in 2011. (Stats are updated through Wednesday night’s games. Click the player’s name to see his full stat-line.)

 

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The Works: How LeBron James Destroyed the MVP Award

January 03, 2011   Bethlehem Shoals and Eric Freeman   No comments

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Today in The Works: Making sense of the NBA’s Christmas ratings; assessing some major player disappointments. Then, Eric and Shoals debate the Thunder’s supposed stat-padding.

But first, how LeBron James completely and totally exposed the MVP award for the heaping lie it is.

Be A Selfish Jerk, You Jerk!

LeBron JamesOver the weekend, LeBron James stated (quite reasonably, I thought) that neither he nor Dwyane Wade had a shot at the MVP this season. This is pretty much consistent with the critique of the Heat: by coming together to form a three-headed monster of superstar-dom, James, Wade and Chris Bosh forfeited their dignity, or at least their individuality. The MVP, while not quite an award about individuals — it’s individuals winning, or making their teammates better — at least requires they be held up as a single man on a single trophy.

The Heat benefit from the unfair advantage of All-World teammates. In theory, this means there is always less pressure on them than on other candidates for the award, and that in the end, they just don’t have to try as hard, or stand as tall. There is no room for ego or the individual will, since on this team, those dark forces would quickly scuttle the entire experiment. As James surmised, the team is MVP-proof — this despite the fact that, in the preseason, he topped many writers’ lists of predictions. A team premised on balance and sharing is not conducive to handing out MVPs, even as the award is not supposed to be about one man’s accomplishments.

It brings us back to the perennial question: what exactly is the MVP? And, if the Heat are cowards, are we to understand the individualism of the MVP as somehow more honorable?

 

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Ranking the NBA’s Most Improved Player Candidates

January 01, 2011   Sam Amick   No comments

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Talent is one thing. Work ethic is another.

It’s a creed that is as true in the NBA as anywhere else, and the Most Improved Player award is often the place to find a young player who has applied both key elements in a most admirable way while becoming a far more relevant member of the league.

Unless you’re Bobby Simmons.

Leave it to a Clipper to mess with a good trend. The 2004-05 MIP award winner has fallen completely off the NBA map since he more than doubled his scoring average from one year to the next (7.8 points per game in 2003-04 to 16.4). Yet aside from that aberration, it’s a quality cast of characters that has earned this trophy.

There’s no shortage of worthy candidates in this year’s race, too, including one who has a chance to right the Simmons wrong. Clippers guard Eric Gordon has seen a Simmons-like spike in his already-impressive production, going from 16.9 points per game and 44.9 percent shooting in his second season to 23.8 points per game on 46 percent shooting while proving a worthy running mate to Rookie of the Year leader Blake Griffin.

 

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Charley Rosen’s Close Look: Westbrook or Felton for Most Improved?

December 23, 2010   Charley Rosen   No comments

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Compared to the more celebrated postseason awards — such as the MVP, the league’s outstanding defender and the most prolific sixth man — the Most Improved Player seems to be a marginal, if not dubious, honor.

However, as past recipients have demonstrated, being named the MIP can bring a player the benefits of a lucrative, long-term contract. For example, the likes of Gilbert Arenas, Monta Ellis, Zach Randolph and Danny Granger.

Thus far this season, Raymond Felton and Russell Westbrook have been widely promoted as being two of the leading candidates. But in the Knicks’ 112-98 blowout of the visiting Thunder, the face-to-face matchup between these two point guards was utterly decisive.

 

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