What you’ve seen of the Utah Jazz this season is pretty much what you’re going to get. They are basically a .500 team that can hang with good teams, especially at home, and steal a game they shouldn’t every now and then.
In March 2008 the Houston Rockets were the NBA’s Blue Plate Special. The had won 22 games, the second-longest streak in NBA history, and there was talk that Tracy McGrady and the guys would challenge the league record of 33 set decades earlier by the Chamberlain/West Los Angeles Lakers.
Good news/bad news for the Mavericks, and to be honest there isn’t much good news.
Dirk Nowitzki is back from injury, a bit earlier than expected, and he seemed to be OK in playing 20 minutes against the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday.
Wonder what Andrea Bargnani has to say for himself now.
A few weeks back, you recall, the Raptors’ 7-footer and former overall No. 1 draft choice raised more than a few eyebrows by putting his own team dead last on his private NBA power ranking chart.
Forget Kobe Bryant.
Forget, for now, Steve Nash’s return to the Lakers and what it means.
The Lakers don’t end the nonsense that has been the first two months of the NBA season and start to act like the dominant team we all thought they’d be until Dwight Howard plays like Dwight Howard.
It kind of sucks to be Doc Rivers these days.
His team has showed little sign of life as it meanders through the first third on the NBA schedule, the new players brought on board to give the team depth haven’t come close to performing the way anyone in Boston thought they would, and on Christmas Day the Celts start a 4-game road trip in Brooklyn and includes three games on the West Coast.
For the Dallas Mavericks, it’s time to start grinding.
It’s been two months since Dirk Nowitzki underwent knee surgery, and while he is expected back shortly after Christmas, the team knows that his return to the lineup means only that his training camp will start.
Something’s happening; what it is ain’t exactly clear.
The lyrics from the old song by the 1960s folk group Buffalo Springfield applie now to the Los Angeles Clippers, who have won 11 straight games and demanded a place at the table with the powers (Oklahoma City, San Antonio) of the Western Conference.
Is the NBA on the level?
There are elite teams, of course, but is the playing field level for everyone? Or does the league give a huge edge to superstars, as ref-gone-bad Tim Donaghy alleges?
Timing has always been a problem in Minnesota.
When the Timberwolves had Kevin Garnett in his prime years, the team just couldn’t figure out a way to assemble enough complementary pieces to make a legitimate move to elite status in the Western Conference.
It’s doubtful that casual NBA fans know that Mike Woodson is the coach of the New York Knicks.
Is it possible that the Boston Celtics will not make the playoffs?
Miles (59 games) remain on an endless 82-game NBA season, but at this point the Celtics appear to have few answers in a season that has produced a large number of bumps in the road.
The Thunder keep moving the chains.
2008-09 – Last place
2009-10 – Western Conference quarterfinals
2010-11 – Conference finals
2111-12 – NBA Finals
Only a convenient turn in the schedule that took the Lakers to the nation’s capital on Friday night has enabled Mike D’Antoni’s beleaguered team from carrying a 5-game anchor of a losing streak to Philadelphia tonight.
With the Sacramento Kings it’s not always about basketball, which seems a little odd. But over the last few years the focus has been on the owners (the Maloof Brothers) or the gasoline-and-fire personality of angry big man DeMarcus Cousins.
Pass, pick, cut to the hoop, layup. Play defense. Do it again. And again. Every game.
