1) Injuries
This week in the NBA has seen a flurry of injuries to important players. As we discussed last week, it started with Olowakandrew Vagynum going all Tony Jaa on Gerald Wallace, resulting in a collapsed lung.
Ironically, the next big name to fall was Bynum himself (sidenote: if he had been suspended a game for his foul on Crash this wouldn’t have happened. There, I mentioned it. Now shut up about karma for a while). The Next Great Non-Injury Prone Center’s MCL snapped like a dry twig when his left leg (different knee) was plowed into by none other than Mamba himself. Obviously, Kobe was the attention-starved 8-year-old big sister to Bynum’s newborn baby boy and (s)he got a little jealous. (On an unrelated note, Kobe scored 61 in his next game. Also, he bought a pair of pink sweatpants that say “hottie” across the butt).
Next to go were the point guards: Jameer Nelson and Chris Paul. Most of you maniacs out there probably saw CP3 pull up limping on a drive in the 3rd quarter of the Blazers-Hornets game on Monday. You probably also saw the Hornets 20-point lead disappear in about 2.78 seconds.
Look at that fourth quarter. I guess that without Chris Paul, the Hornets aren't fluent in 6 billion forms of communication OR any good at basketball.
With all the debates about how to define the league’s MVP, we can make it easier by creating a new category I like to call WTWBP (worst team without best player). After watching the last quarters of Monday’s game (and after the Bulls made the CP3-less Hornets look like these guys) it became clear that the Hornets grabbed the WTWBP title from the Cavs and haven’t looked back. Congratulations, New Orleans!
While Chris Paul’s injury won’t keep him out past the all-star break, the Magic are in a much tougher bind after JN14 was injured during Orlando’s 105-95 loss to Dallas. The latest reports are that Jameer has a torn labrum in his right shoulder. He now has the choice between rehabbing it in an attempt to come back this season or opting for season-ending shoulder surgery. Nelson’s ball-handling and three-point accuracy have been HUGE in creating opportunities for Turkoglu, Lewis, and Howard.The notion of the Sixers being better without Elton Brand in the lineup has quickly turned from interesting but laughable to scarily accurate. Luckily for them, he’s having season-ending shoulder surgery. Hooray!
2) Oden vs. Durant I
Tonight’s game features the first matchup between players who don’t play the same position and are at different stages of development yet happened to be picked 1-2 in the 2007 draft!!!!! A SHOWDOWN, to say the least.
Seriously though, it should be fun to watch these guys on the floor at the same time, especially if Greg smashes everything in his path. Not much more to say here, but John Hollinger wrote a great breakdown so I’ll just refer you here.
3) Knick fans: Repent!
“A funny thing happened to me at Madison Square Garden the other day. I watched my team get torched by an opposing team’s superstar. And I cheered for him. Then it happened again. And I cheered again.”
Lost in the madness of Kobe and LBJ’s wild nights in New York was the disgusting acceptance of the Knicks’ getting whooped on consecutive nights at home. Now, this is nothing against the Knicks players who clearly tried (we’ve already been over my man-crush on Nate Robinson, so I won’t go into that). Rather, I am calling out Knick fans, who appear to take great pleasure in watching other teams’ players break records in MSG, and Mike D’Antoni, who flippantly dismissed the losses as if it was acceptable to give up 61 and 52 in consecutive games. In fact, D'Antoni was recently quoted here as saying "Plus, Knicks fans only get to see him once a season." Jesus Christ, D'Antoni, are you a fan or the head coach of an NBA team?All I know is, even in the Blazers’ darkest days, I’d probably jump from the highest rafter in the Rose Garden if I heard a significant number of people cheering for a player on the opposite team. It makes me sick.
Nate, give them a stern talking to.
4) Blogfest at Powell's
Don’t forget folks, your very own Kobestoppers will be present at Powell’s books in Portland on Monday at 7:30! Be there!
2 comments:
i just want you to know that the majority of those at the garden cheering for kobe were lakers fans, not knicks fans - due to the fact that new york contains people from all over the country there are probably more laker fans in ny than any other city besides la. And since at the beginning of the year it looked like the knicks were gonna suck balls again (they are playing much better) all these laker fans bought tickets to this game while knicks fans were not rushing to get tickets - dont talk bad about knicks fans, those were laker fans screaming MVP
My apologies, Tom. I'll revise my statement to:
If I ever heard thousands of screaming Laker fans in Portland, I would jump from the highest rafter in the Rose Garden.
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