NBA WEEK 17

Greetings from the confines of my kitchen…

I’ve been away in Ottawa since Thursday so I didn’t really catch much ball over the weekend, however, that doesn’t make the playoff race any less intriguing.

The West looks like a zoo with 8 teams fighting for the last 7 spots. The Lakers are the only team who have really taken care of business and only 5.5 games separate the #2 seeded Spurs and the #9 Suns. It’s kinda crazy because a team like Houston or Denver could be holding down home court advantage this week, and then by next week not even be in a playoff spot. The East on the other hand is the polar opposite, with all of the top seeds pretty much secured and then 9 teams fighting for the last 3 spots or so.

One of those teams fighting for a playoff birth are the Charlotte Bobcats who have quietly assembled a well-balanced team and are making a subtle push for the post-season. At the time of this writing, they are only 3 games behind 8th place Milwaukee and with 15 of their last 22 games against sub-500 squads, they have a legit shot. The Bobcats went 3-1 last week and have some key guys stepping up. Boris Diaw averaged 22 chips a game over 4 games last week and both Okafor and Crash went for 16 and 9 over that same stretch. Ray Felton also went for 13 and 9 dimes last week and they also have a little bit of depth with guys like Vlad Radmonovic and Raja Bell playing well in addition to the development of D.J Augustin. The only thing that might hinder this squad is the fact that they play back-to-backs in 5 of their next 6 weekends.

Another team in the midst of the Eastern Conference playoff hunt is the Indiana Pacers who have been receiving huge performances from ‘The Ugly Duckling’ Troy Murphy. Murphy could always play (he’s averaging a double-double this year) and he IS getting paid a shitload of money but he’s been playing out of his mind as of late. Over the past week, Murphy averaged 19 chips to go along with 16 boards, capping it off with a 22 and 19 effort against the Nuggs.

So the Pistons brass must’ve read the blog from a few weeks ago and have said that AI will come off the bench once he returns from injury. The Pistons have been playing much better since AI went on the injured list a few games ago and all 5 starters scored in double-figures in their win against Boston on Sunday.

Speaking of Boston, Stephon Marbury is back! Fuck, as if it took this long for that saga in NYC to end. He’s now suiting up for the Celts after the Knicks decided to cut their losses and rid them of the soap-opera that is Starbury. Upon his arrival in Beantown, coach Doc Rivers told him not to worry about fitting with the team when it comes to the game, but to make sure he was fitting in the dressing room. At this point in Steph’s career, I think he’ll take the high road and be glad to accept any role Doc has lined up for him which I’m guessing will be the back-up role behind Rondo. With current back-up Gabe Pruitt taking the boob-of-the-week award for a recent DUI incident, there will be plenty of minutes kicking around for Steph. He dropped 8 pts. and 2 dimes in his Celtics debut on Friday but was much less effective in Sunday’s loss to the Pistons.

Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? Whoops, I mean Eddie Jones. Remember him? The 2-time all-star who used to kill it with the Lakers in the mid-late 90’s? Well he’s sitting at home right now in quasi-retirement after he started the season injured and just never really found his spot with the Pacers. Well, now that the deadline has passed and teams are looking at the waiver wire to see who they could pick up to help with a playoff surge, would you consider EJ an option? The guy has played 15 seasons, ranks 5th all-time in 3-pointers made and has over 80 playoff games under his belt…and even though his numbers have declined significantly with decreased minutes, he might be good to have around a group of young guys. Whether or not someone picks him up, here’s our ode to EJ…

Did anyone catch Brian Scalabrine getting injured the other night? He ended up with a mild concussion and a strained neck after a defender came down on him after a pump fake. It was kinda hilarious. I tried finding the clip but all I could find was this (which I may have posted a while back)…

So as one superstar goes on the injured list, another is close to a return. Gilbert Arenas is finally practicing with full contact after 3 knee surgeries in the last 2 years. It’s still uncertain whether he’ll suit up for the Wiz this year since their season is already in the tank but it’s good to see Gil at least taking his time to come back. He tried coming back early last year and ended up needing another surgery so my guess is that he’ll wait until next year to make his return…afterall, we all know what happened to T-Mac. While his return is in question, this superfan’s love certainly is not…I’m still not sure what to think haha…

I’m out like Scal…

Gliz