Number of the Day: Kyrie Irving's 57 against the Spurs

courtesy of gettyimages

Yeah. Still not over it.

Poet in the Post: Dylan Thomas laments Amar'e Stoudemire & the New York Knicks

At halftime of their game against Cleveland last week, Charles Barkley felt the Knicks were so historically bad—and they are—that the occasion called for making up words to describe their offense. Instead of triangle he went with blu-blu, or something like that. The thing was, at the time, the Knicks were actually winning. They would go onto lose—and they’ve lost twice since—but at the time not all seemed lost. What makes the Knicks sense of badness so horrendous, however, is that this current group of players really hasn’t been anywhere of note, so this cannot be described as a decline. Furthermore, they’re not young enough for this time spent struggling to be taken as some painful crucible for the league’s future zeitgeist. They are, besides the occasional flair of wasted talent and unconceived talent, awful. 

Empires in Decline: The Sun Sets on the Boston Celtics

The following four paragraphs were adapted from an article, in "The Wall Street Journal", entitled "Sun Setting on British Power" by Alistair MacDonald (we made them about basketball):

NBA Preview Part 2: Central Division

NBA previews continue with a look at the Central Division. One correction from the Atlantic preview, I project the Celtics to win the division and get the 2nd seed in the East.  Now on to the Central.

1)  Cleveland Cavaliers
Last Year: 61-21, lost in Eastern Conference Semifinals

Additions: Ramon Session, Samardo Samuels, um....Joey Graham?
Subtractions: Lebron James, Delonte West, Shaquille O'Neal

Revisiting LeBron's Decision and Jesse Jackson's Comments

I already unloaded my thoughts the night it happened over at The Faster Times, and I still have yet to hear anyone defend The Decision; but opinions do vary heavily on the decision.  I even got into an argument with a woman yesterday about it and she left the room crying when I said loyalty went out the window the moment Dan Gilbert fired his GM and coach who had won 120 plus games the last two years, which, in my mind, opens up all sorts of floodgates.  She was neither from Cleveland, nor was she a basketball fan, and in her frustration, she said to hell with pro sports and that all their greed and disloyalty is why she watches only college sports, to which I responded "Lane Kiffin."  But the point I think both she and I and everyone everyone else are missing and are afraid to discuss is that this decision by James is much more complicated than a matter of loyalty.  In fact, what it has to say about loyalty may be a marginal matter in terms of this decision's importance.

LCBInsider: Unfounded Rumors

-Reporting from the frontiers of the NBA, Teach spins us a tale of the LeBron James gang over at The Faster Times, painting them as a bunch of cattle rustlers and rapists, or a new generation of heroes.  Left out of the legend are German farmer Dirk Nowitzki's misgivings on The Farmer's Almanac, being tied to the land, and how the wind all of a sudden is blowing east.  Heck, even the grizzly fur trader Amar'e has packed his bags and headed back to New York City, with a rattle snake over his shoulders and a saddle, but no horse, in his hands.  In other words, we've all been to the Pacific and now it's time to come home.  The commemorative coin for the Western Conference's dominance can be purchased for $19.99, but it's worth at least a cool thousand.

- Keeping with a western theme, Shaq apparently wants to join up with Timmy Duncan in order to visit the Bad Lands of South Dakota and study up close the devastating effects of erosion on what was once a mighty terrain, millions of years ago.

-Cavs owner Dan Gilbert blames video games for LeBron James joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, stating, "What can you expect from a generation raised on reset buttons?  And in my mind, this is much worse. like presetting the rosters before starting franchise mode or something."

-Stan Yeungling reports that "The Cavs are still the best team in Cleveland without LeBron," which means maybe the Browns should make James an offer.

-The state of Ohio plans to make LeBron's Akron mansion into a state cemetery, much like the federal government did with Robert E. Lee's Arlington home during and after the Civil War.

-JJ Redick cancels his hour long free agent special, where he planned on reading an epic poem about the trials and tribulations of making a perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich, explaining, "It would just be spitting in the face of all those crying Cleveland fans because I'm not going there either."

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LCB NBA Picks: Lebron's Destination

Everyone else is doing it, so we thought we would join in on the fun, because we're sheep. Yep, you guessed right, we're going to tell you where Lebron is playing next season before he gives his big announcement tomorrow night. So give us a moment, as we prepare to look into the deep dark future of tomorrow and make the jump to see what we see.

LeBron James faces the offseason: "Office in Small City"

Do I even have to preface this story?  The Cavs lost, and they lost in shocking fashion.  That is all. 

LeBron James just spent the last six hours altering his destiny, crossing out every appointment and meeting on his calendar from now until July, making each box of the week into a transparent window, as if time were now transparent and of little consequence--only, how can the moments of our lives be of little consequence?  Moments tend to build and stack into cinder block walls, gather momentum like a freight train, or increase in mass like a snowball, but, with each stroke of his pen, LeBron took a block off the wall, shoveled coal out of the furnace, and unrolled a snowball into a white carpet; and even he was uncertain as to whether his actions were driven by freedom or recklessness.  Maybe freedom is reckless.  LeBron did not want to think about it, yet one's own thoughts are rabid dogs, hard to put down.  LeBron stared through the windows of his office, taking in the cloudless sky before him.  He was a man without obligations.  He could go anywhere, but he chose to stay seated, doing absolutely nothing.

A pulley squeaked outside LeBron's window, as two men lowered themselves by feeding rope to metal wheels.  When they found themselves level with the floor of LeBron's office, they stopped and tapped on the window.  LeBron didn't budge.  He didn't even blink.  They tapped again.  Still nothing.

"I guess it don't matter to him whether we wash it or not.  He ain't movin.  Look at his eyes," the man pressed his index finger against the glass, leaving his fingerprint.  "Jus' look at 'im, Antawn.  He's got goldfish eyes.  I bet if we wait he puffs his cheeks out."  The man demonstrates his theory by puffing out his own cheeks.

"Mo, quit clowning.  If, Mr. James, doesn't want to communicate that's fine, but we ain't gaining nothing by inciting the man."  Antawn begins to wipe the window down with a wet rag, obscuring their view of the office from the outside, and as they washed the window, LeBron didn't move.

"Mr. James?  Mr. James, Mr. Brown wanted me to deliver this," in comes LeBron's secretary, Ms. Varejao, carrying a fish bowl.  "Where do you want this?"  LeBron doesn't answer.  He continues to stare out the window now streaming with water, and he begins to feel sad.  The emotion catches him off guard.  In fact, LeBron's not sure if the emotion is even his.  In fact, he decides the tears welling up in his eyes must belong to his reflection, in the window, and not him.  No, this sadness can not be his.  It must belong to the window.  It must be part of a daily routine: a part of the building's daily maintenance.  That's right.  At age twenty-five, he's too young to cry.   This emotion that's not even his is just upkeep, something that must happen.

"Mr. James, you can ignore me if you want to, but I'm leaving the bowl in here.  I don't need it, and I don't want it," Ms. Varejao places the bowl in front of LeBron on his desk.  The water sloshes a bit as she places it on the cherry wood desk and lands on an envelope, addressed LeBron, that Ms. Varaejao has also delivered.  "Good day, sir."  She walks out and shuts the door.

In the bowl are two Siamese fighting fish, slowly circling one another, flaring their gills, each displaying its colorful fins like a matador's red cloth.  LeBron watches them, studies them, wonders why Mr. Brown wants him to be the proud owner of two Betta fish.  He opens the envelope as the smaller Betta fish charges the larger one:

LeBron, I need you in Boston this week--make that the company needs you.  You need to inform Mr. Garnett, Mr. Pierce, and Mr. Allen that their services are no longer necessary.  I don't care how you do it, just as long as it gets done.  If you need any further motivation, just observe my two fighting fish, MJ and Kobe.  They will teach you all you need to know about competition and survival of the fittest.


Mike Brown


LeBron balled the note up and let it fall to the floor.  The smaller fish was now floating belly up in the bowl, its fins wrapping around it like a shroud.  The larger fish wobbled in the water, drunk on violence, numb to the cost of victory.  LeBron picks up the bowl, raises it above his head, and hurls it at the window, screaming.  The bowl bursts, less like glass, and more like a bubble against the double paned window of the office.

"Daaaaammmmmnnnnnn!" calls one of the window washers, as both the men in their jumpsuits stare into the office window.  The other window washer calls back, "I don't know, but the dude seems a lil temperamental."

Standing in a puddle of water and glass shards, with a dead fighting fish beside his left foot and a flopping one beside his right foot, LeBron flares his nostrils as if they were gills.

Sebastian Telfair: On the Footnote of Kings

"In the future, when something comes up, you tell exactly how it happened but write down for yourself the way you think it should have happened."

--Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

The NBA trade deadline is all about movement.  Big names, All-Stars even, are reduced to migrant workers, forced to go where the fruit is in season.  The Cavs acquisition of Antawn Jamison involved six NBA players alone.  The transaction saw Al Thornton, Brian Skinner, Zydrunas Ilgauskus, and a first round pick arrive in Washington, a truck full of Joad's, grown weary of the west.  The Clippers welcomed Drew Gooden, and Antawn Jamison arrived in Cleveland by what appeared to be a ticker-tape parade; but that covers only five of the six vagabonds.  Rarely mentioned, just a footnote in history, relegated to the role of a supporting actor's stunt double, was Sebastian Telfair, who at the ripe old age of 25 found himself headed to his fifth team in six years.

Time Waster: Happy Holidays

The latest MVPuppets spots from Nike hit the intranets over the weekend. And if these recent ads are any indication, they will just keep getting better. Now, I don't want to spoil the surprise, so I'll just let you know that they feature a couple of hip-hop's finest. Enjoy.

Cleveland Cavaliers Preview: "Summer Evening"

In an effort to gear up for the NBA season, we will view the upcoming season through the eyes of Edward Hopper. Feel free to add your thoughts on the 2010 Cavs in our comments section.

LeBron James takes Shaq's hand, clearing his throat to sound sincere, "I don't care what happened with those other guys. Things will be different with us. I'm going to take care of you. All you need is me. Nobody else even matters."

Shaq stares off into the shadows, where all this talk of love leads.

"And we don't have to stay here forever. I'll save up money. Maybe go to college next year or the big city. Let's just make it work for one year and then blow this town. Just give me one year to prove myself."

Shaq's eyes flicker with the porchlights, "LeBron, I'm dying."

Bullets of Sunday's NBA Action:

• Kobe and Lebron will always be judged against one another. The strange part about this inevitable is that they're not even from the same generation of players. Kobe is 30 years old. Lebron is 24 years old. Kobe should be far and away better than Lebron is right now. Kobe is part of the Tim Duncan and KG generation, which means he's actually closer to the end of his prime, while Lebron hasn't even entered his. That's something to think about because that means that Kobe has a slim window to set the bar before Lebron really gets rolling. 
  
  
• Lamar Odom's 28 points showed why the Lakers were smart to hold onto him.  I really feel for any GM that has to deal with a player like Odom.  His length and athleticism combined with his ability to go comatose make him a lot like owning New York Avenue, Tennessee Avenue, and St. James Place in Monopoly.  On the one hand, you're glad to have a monopoly of something, but deep down you know it won't win you the game unless you've got something else to go with it.  Fortunately, the Lakers have Kobe, Gasol, Fisher, and Ariza, which is like having Boardwalk, Park Place, and all the Railroads.  Still, I bet Mitch Kupchak has serious inner debates with himself every time Odom's name comes up in trade talks, as he thinks to himself, "Gee, it really would make sense to move him and pick up all the red or yellow property, but I just feel so attached to him.  I see him sitting next Luke Walton on Baltic Avenue and think that Lamar is the only guy left from the Shaq trade to Miami.  It's a comfort to have him here."
  
  
• Mo Williams must feel like he got taken in the Madoff Scam because his absence from the All-Star game is a fraud with what he's invested into the first half of this season.  He looked like the best player on the floor for the Cavs at times today.
  
  
• As a Spurs fan, I loved seeing the two biggest shots of the game hit by Bonner and Roger "Snake Eyes" Mason.  Bonner played well all game, finishing just 2 points shy of his career high with 23 points.  It was good to see Mason hit a big shot in a game where he really didn't play well.  His biggest plays prior to hitting the go ahead shot were dropping a defensive rebound and committing some dumb fouls.  Maybe Mason's real nickname should be Medium Shot Rog because he's got a little Horry in him.  Maybe we should call him Horry-Lite.
  
  
• George Hill, playing with a stinger in his shoulder, came up with an important seven points in the second half.  He showed some moxie for a rookie playing on the road.  
  
  
• Manu Ginobili appears to be hitting his stride.  I wrote earlier today that his health in last year's conference finals gives me some hope that a healthy Manu might make a difference this year.  His 19 points today had him appearing with a bounce in his step.  He also came up with the game-clinching steal.  The team was clearly better today with him on the floor.
  
  
• Manu's health combined with how well Bonner, Snake Eyes, and Hill have been brought into the team's rotation have not only made this team younger, but these factors have also given this Spurs team the greatest chance of improvement among the four contenders.  The Cavs solved their offensive shortcomings with the addition of Mo Williams.  The Lakers are a Finals team without Bynum, and with him, I think they win going away.  The Celtics are the same team from last year, minus a a couple of key role players.  This Spurs team, however, has two new starters that are allowing guys like Bowen and Oberto to sit on ice for the regular season, which is another lesson taught by Robert Horry--the playoffs are the only thing that matters.
  
  
• After today, I'd rank the four contenders as follows:
  

4. Boston Celtics

They lost to the Lakers and the Spurs this week.  Also, they have the weakest bench of all four teams.  Seriously, what happened to these guys?  If I'm a Celtic fan, I'm hoping the bench is waiting for the second half of the season to flip the switch, but Big Baby doesn't strike me as that kind of guy.

3. San Antonio Spurs

Today marks the 31st game in a row this team has won when it scores over a hundred, and it can't be said enough how much the inexperienced guys need success in these type of games before the playoffs start.

2. Cleveland Cavaliers

I believe they've got the best player in the game.  They've also got one of the deepest supporting casts.  Mo Williams is the only other guy playing at an All-Star level, but this team has a lot of bodies; and most of them play defense.  The one who doesn't, Wally Szerbiak, scored 16 points today, shooting 4-5 from behind the arc.

1. L.A. Lakers

Bynum got hurt, Kobe killed the Knicks with 61, and they beat the Celtics and the Cavs.  They beat the Cavs while Kobe was receiving an IV.  They're pretty good.

NBA on ABC: Spurs vs. Celtics and Cavs vs. Lakers

"Looking at something changes it....  The more you look the less you really know."

                               --The Coen Brothers, The Man Who Wasn't There

This past week was a good week for the NBA, an extremely good week.  Kobe and Lebron teed off against the New York Knicks.  The Lakers and Celtics met in a showdown, and today the Lakers, Cavs, and Celtics are all showcased again, only the San Antonio Spurs are too.  Whenever ABC or ESPN put up a list of the top teams, it obviously includes the Lakers, Cavs, and Celtics.  The fourth team on the list, however, is the Orlando Magic.  The numbers would tell us that they are the fourth best team in the League, but having watched the last decade of basketball, we know the bigger threat to Kobe, the King, and KG are the guys in black and silver--"looking at something changes it."

The Spurs face off against the defending champions the Boston Celtics today.  I believe deep down in my heart that this matchup would have been last year's Finals matchup if one of two things had happened last season.  If the Spurs had earned the #2 seed instead of the #3 seed, they would have come out of the West.  A #2 seed last year would have avoided them an emotionally grueling series against the Phoenix Suns, and it would have allowed them to have the home court in the second round, as opposed to them traveling to New Orleans.  Having the #2 see would have also prevented the Spurs from spending the night on an airplane the day before the Lakers series.   Remember in Game 1 how the Spurs dominated the Lakers for 3 quarters and then collapsed in the 4th quarter.  As a Spurs fan, I have to blame Game 1 of last year's Western Conference Finals on the night spent on an airplane.  The other factor that might have changed things in that Lakers series is Manu's health. These observations allow doubt to enter into the reality that the Lakers were the best team in the West last season.  These observations allow for "reasonable doubt."

What we observe does not just change how we view the past, but it affects how we view the present.  Based on past statistics and observations, we accept two truths about this Spurs team.  We label them as old, and we label them as a great defensive team, but the observations we've made this year change what we once held as true.  This Spurs team is not that old.  Yes, Tim Duncan is 32, Michael Finley is 35, Manu Ginobili is 31, Kurt Thomas is 36 and Bruce Bowen is 37, but Tony Parker is only 26, George Hill is 22,  and Matt Bonner and Roger Mason are 28.  Of those 30 and older guys, Bowen no longer starts and only gets 20 minutes a game.  Bowen, Oberto, Udoka, and Vaughn are all more likely to be found on the bench these days than in seasons past.  The Spurs have become younger on the sly.  Of course, the turn to youth has made them less of a defensive team.  In the past, this team was always top 3 in defensive field goal percentage.  This season they've hovered around 15th in the league. What we come to accept as truth is now always true.

Last night, in Arlington, Stan Yuengling and I got into a conversation about what was more impressive--Lebron's "triple-double" or Kobe's 61.  I felt that Lebron's "triple-double," even if he did only grab 9 rebounds was the more impressive feat. My argument was that Lebron clearly had the better all-around game, and that while he only scored 52 points to Kobe's 61, he more than made up for that because he had 11 assists to Kobe's 3 assists and zero rebounds.  Lebron's assist total means that he accounted for at least 74 points, while Kobe's assists, even if they all went to guys shooting 3's, would add up to at most 70 points, and that doesn't even account for the impact of Lebron's 9 rebounds and Kobe having none.   I felt strongly about these facts.  

I know I felt strongly about these facts because my voice is hoarse this morning, which means I must have been on my soap box last night, surrounded by cigarette smoke and alcohol.  I was preaching hard, slapping the table and rattling the glasses, but I'd already lost my congregation.  Stan Yeungling shrugged his shoulders and said, "yeah, Lebron had a better all-around game, but Kobe's was more fun to watch.  Kobe's was better.  He made me say wow a lot.  Lebron didn't make me say wow."  This theme crept into our next debate also.  

When Stan gave his top 3 most important players of the past decade, he listed Shaq, Kobe, and Allen Iverson.  He made his list after I said that the careers of Shaq and Tim Duncan are a toss up.  Shaq averages 24 points a game for his career.  Duncan averages 21 points a game for his career, but edges Shaq's career numbers for rebounds, blocks, and assists.  Plus, each has four rings.  They've combined for 3 MVP's, and each has 3 Finals MVP's.  Stan's response was, "Duncan isn't even one of the top 3 most important players of the last decade."  I later got Stan to revise the title of his list.  Instead of calling it the most important players list, he made it the player I liked to watch over the last decade list.  The point is if watching something changes it, then there's the possibility each of us is viewing a different truth.  

Stan Yuengling believes AI is a great player.  I believe he's earned his reputation for greatness under false pretenses.  I know he went to the Finals in 2001, but I also know all he had to do was beat Vince Carter's Raptors and the Glen Robinson, Sam Cassell, Ray Allen Bucks.  I know that when Iverson's Sixer teams mattered so did the Antione Walker and Paul Pierce-led Celtics.  He was playing in a watered down conference that inflated the reputations of good players into very good players and very good players into great players.  What I've seen Iverson do since 2001 in Philly, Denver, and now Detroit has caused me to doubt his accomplishments, but it hasn't phased Stan Yuengling one bit.  Stan looks at Iverson's career and sees one play, the crossover against Jordan, not the mediocrity of the majority of Iverson's teams or his inability to make anyone better, even other All-Stars, Olympians, and former champions.  

When we watch a basketball game, it comes down not just to what happened but how it happened.  It's not what we saw but how we saw it, and asking how becomes much more subjective than asking what. 

This past week the Celtic-Lakers game mattered because of how they played the matchup; they played like it was the playoffs.  When I saw Lebron go for 52 points, 11 assists, and 9 rebounds, I saw him come within one rebound of a feat that hadn't been done since the '70s, and I saw him do things on a basketball court that no other player in history could have done.  I was wowed.  Stan wasn't.  

When I saw Kobe, I saw Michael Jordan; and I missed his greatness, which brings me to the one point Stan Yuengling and I agreed on last night.  MJ was more impressive than Lebron or Kobe when he went for 55 against the Knicks six games into his comeback during the '94-'95 season because he did it against a great team.  

Kobe and Lebron posted their numbers against a 21-28 team that is coached by Mike D'Antoni, who doesn't believe in defense.  He made no adjustments against Kobe.  His strategy was to hope he starts missing, to me that's giving up.  In the NBA, a team has to make in-game adjustments.  When MJ went for 55, he did it against a team that had just gone to the Finals the year before. He did it against one of the best defensive teams in the history of the League.  He did it against Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing, not David Lee.  He did it against John Starks, not Quentin Richardson.  He did it against Charles Oakley and Anthony Mason, not Wilson Chandler and Jared Jeffries.  He did it against Derek Harper, Hubert Davis, Doug Christie, Charlie Ward, and J.R. Reid, not Danilo Gallinari and Nate Robinson, and it's the depth of that Knicks team that brings me to this last point.

This Spurs team, despite its 33-15 record, is not yet a threat to the Lakers, Celtics, or Cavs.  Thirteen of those fifteen losses have come to teams that are .500 or better, which is enough for me to have "reasonable doubt" about the quality of the team's wins. It's called the "uncertainty principle," and there's a guy looking into it with numbers (John Hollinger), and hopefully, RC Buford is looking to make one more move before the trade deadline because the NBA is clearly back to what it was in the '80s and '90s in terms of talented teams that can win a championship. 

And that Knicks team, even with all their depth and grit, only finished as a runner-up.   This Spurs team needs more of both attributes if it's even going to finish second to one of the big three.  Any other finish is like not even existing. Like being a black and white film in a world of color, there's a reason San Antonio's colors are what they are.  They're flying under the radar of human perception, which means they'll either sneak up on everyone or no one at all.

It's an uncertain prediction at best.

Dunk of the week: LBJ goes Dr. J on us

Last night King James dropped 40 points for the third time this season to help move the Cavaliers winning streak to 5 games. He also dunked from the free-throw line (well almost from the free-throw line) and let me remind you this is in a game situation while being chased by a defender.