NBA Week 9 - SirmacTV.com

What up y’all? Everyone have a good Christmas? With the slate of games on Christmas Day how could you not? Aside from the Orlando/New Orleans game (which was uggggly), you couldn’t really go wrong by watching any of the others; Roger Mason knocked down a game-winning 3 to lift San An over Phx…the Cavs/Wiz went right down to the wire (surprisingly!)…Dirk and the Mavs squeeked by Portland…and then of course you had the Celts/Lakers.

The C’s/Lakers was a hard-fought battle with the Lakers eventually trumping the Celtics and putting an end to their franchise record 19-game win streak. The game itself was a little sloppy at times with Pau Gasol going 0-for in the first quarter, Ray Allen shooting just 35% for the game and Rajon Rondo getting into foul trouble. At one point, Rondo and Ray-Ray even got into it running back on D until Pierce stepped in and pushed em’ away. In the end, it was ultimately the Lakers “D” that won them the game as they forced some key turnovers in the 4th and got the Staples crowd back into the game.

The Lakers and Celts had to keep their stars on the floor in crunch time which is a little different than normal because quite frankly, there isn’t usually crunch time with these teams. A common trend with top squads in the L is that they often beat down teams and can then rest their stars in the 4th quarter which is advantageous for obvious reasons. But what exactly does this mean? Well looking at the Raps, CB4 and Jose both log about 40 mins/game compared to guys like ‘Bron, Kobe, Garnett etc. who all clock about 35 mins./game. Now it’s only about a 5 mins/game difference but if you multiply that by the 82 game season, Jose and CB4 will have logged another 10+ games worth of minutes so come the playoff grind, they’re fatigued. Teams like the Cavs, Lakers and Celts are braced for a deep playoff run and you have to give credit to the coaches for managing minutes and keeping their guys well-rested.

Speaking of the Cavs, Lakers and Celts, there has never been a year where more teams have had such a strong start. As of Sunday, the Celts sit at 27-4, the Cavs are 26-4 and the Lakers are 25-5…and you have to give honourable mention to Orlando at 24-6. Of course you have the 95-96 Bulls who started 40-3 (and finished an NBA record 72-10) or the 71-72 Lakers who went 37-3, but to have this many teams still killing as we go into January is pretty extraordinary. Now it’ll just be a matter of seeing who’s built to last and whether or not the injury bug rears its ugly head.

To go along with the whole idea of being built to last, I recently found out that only three players have ever played 20 seasons or more in the NBA; Kevin Willis, Robert Parrish and of course, Kareem. The youngest of the three to retire was Kareem, at 42. However, in this day and age, where so many kids have entered the L straight out of high school (for better or for worse), 20 seasons doesn’t seem too outlandish for the athletes of today. Perhaps the NBA could very well see its first 25-year man! Guys like ‘Bron, KG and Kobe will all enter their 20th season at 37 and 38 years old (if they choose to keep playing) and given the extreme advances in health and nutrition compared to when Kareem was still ballin’ with those goggles on, a 25-year career may not be such a stretch.

So the NBA All-Star game is only about a month and half away, and the league just recently announced the participants in the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. Defending his crown will be Dwight Howard who has to be the favorite going in. Alongside Dwight will be Rudy Gay (who I think is the only guy who can take out Dwight), past dunk contest winner Nate Robinson, and then a fourth participant who the fans get to decide (either Russell Westbrook, Joe Alexander or Rudy Fernandez). Like I said, Dwight has to be the heavy favorite going-in but I think if Rudy Gay is creative enough, he can take it down. Nate Rob has insaaaane hops but I just don’t think he’s gonna bring anything we haven’t already seen before. To vote on the fourth participant, go to http://www.nba.com/dunk/landing.jsp ...Even though I’m a huge Rudy Fernandez fan, Joe Alexander gets my vote…

Over the last couple weeks, there have been numerous trade winds in Raptorland including Kapono going to Denver for J.R Smith (which the Nuggs turned down) and also some other rumours including Jose bouncing for Steve Nash (with spare parts included). I’m pretty sure the Jose/Nash deal had no serious truth behind it and was pure speculation, and looking at where the two players in their careers, it’d be a stupid move to deal Jose for an aging Nash. I’m definitely an advocate for Nash and think it would be great for him to finish his career with Canada’s team, but in all reality, his best years are behind him and his legs have 6 more years of NBA run on them than Jose’s. From a statistical standpoint, both of their numbers are virtually identical so it’s not like you’d be gaining anything from that standpoint either. Jose averages 13, 9 and 3 while Nash puts up 15, 8 and 3. Nash is also 2nd in the L in turnovers while Jose is down around 60th or so. No deal.

Anyways, I’ll check y’all next week but for now, I’m out like Nate Rob’s chance at another dunk title…

-Gliz