Gameday Dish: Spurs vs. Bulls

February 17 by Leave a Comment

The San Antonio Spurs, the best road team in the NBA, come into Chicago to take on the second best home court defenders in the league, the Bulls. The aforementioned  south Texas team (the keepers of the top home court record as well) will wrap up their current nine-game rodeo swing tonight at the United Center led by coach Gregg Popovich, the now longest tenured head man in pro hoops.

The Bulls lost to San Antonio on November 17th at the AT&T Center 103-94 in the season’s tenth game.  Ninth-year bruising vet Carlos Boozer had yet to play for first-year Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau at that point, however the blocking, boarding, bouncing and bumping Joakim Noah did his thing to the tune of 10 points and 14 rebounds in the that first of two meetings between these teams. So with Noah out until after the All-Star Break, Boozer will see if he can contain and contend with the Spurs’ big men in the paint this evening. Chicago currently sits 2.5 games behind the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference at 37-16. The four-time NBA Champion Spurs lead the entire league at 46-9 and are a healthy 7 games ahead of the second best team in the Western Conference, the Dallas Mavericks.

Coach Thibodeau came to Chicago during the off-season after having served as Doc Rivers’ lead assistant and defensive guru in Beantown for the previous three years. The Bulls are allowing the second fewest points against in the NBA at 92.3, and when above average shot-blocker Noah returns look for that number to slide even lower. Chicago played and won at home on Tuesday against Paul Silas’ Charlotte Bobcats 106-94. Seventh-year forward Luol Deng led the Bulls with 24 points and third-year All-Star starting point guard Derrick Rose had 13 dimes, while first-year Bull Boozer had 9 boards.

San Antonio went to New Jersey on Monday and exited the Turnpike State with a 102-85 victory, where they outscored the Nets in every quarter. All-Star Manu Ginobili had 22 points and Tim Duncan, the 14 year ALL-WORLD big man, had 11 glass cleanings in the mismatch. A victory tonight against the Spurs would leave the Second City-ers only three wins short of their entire total last year, when they finished even at 41-41 and made the postseason as the East’s 8th seed before losing 4-1 to LeBron and the Cavaliers In the first round. Coincidentally, a win tonight for San Antonio would leave them only three games from equaling their 2010 season win total. The Spurs finished last year at 50-32 and were swept in the West semis 4-0 by Phoenix. As we head into the All-Star break, both sides of tonight’s highly anticipated East-West matchup look poised to advance one win closer to these benchmarks. My playoff partner Dick Stockton will join me on the sidelines for the San Antonio Spurs vs. Chicago Bulls at 8:00 PM ET on TNT.

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Gameday Dish: Hornets at Nets

February 9 by Leave a Comment

The New Orleans Hornets pay their once-a-season visit to the Garden State tonight. The Hornets currently sit in fifth place overall in the Western Conference at 32-21. Coach Monty Williams, the youngest headman in the league at 39 years old, brings his talented and exciting squad to the Prudential Center on a 3-game losing skid, most recently dropping a 104-92 contest to Kevin Love and the Timberwolves in the Big Easy on Monday night.

The Hornets eighth-year PF David West, a local guy from Teaneck, leads New Orleans in scoring at 18.8 per game. The man with the plan running the on-court show for Team Buzz is sixth-year PG Chris Paul.  Paul, the NBA’s 2006 ROY and 4X-All Star, averages 9.8 dimes per game, third best in the league, and leads the team in minutes played at 35.3.

On the defensive end of the court, CP3 is tops in the NBA in steals at 2.55 swipes per game. Starting center Emeka Okafor anchors the interior D and swats away 1.78 bpg and ranks sixth in the league in glass-work with 10.1 rpg. His hustle and rim-protection abilities matched with lead guard Paul’s swarming perimeter presence have made New Orleans the second stingiest team in the league at 92.3 ppg allowed.

New Orleans started the season white-hot, victorious in their first 8 games and in 11 of the first 12. Then, the script flipped dramatically as the Hornets went 5-11 over the next 16 games. They are average at best away from The Pelican State, going 12-14 on the road so far.

So while tonight’s interconference matchup has the Brick City boys playing a formidable foe, at 12-13 at home, almost a .500 clip, the Nets have reason to be confident going into tonight’s game. New Jersey last played on Sunday and lost at home, 105-86. They are also on a three-game winless streak. However, on the sunny side of Prognostication Avenue, the last two times Avery Johnson’s team had three days between contests they came out with their A-game – losing at Phoenix in a tough-fought OT battle and winning in Newark on January 5th against the Chicago Bulls and their do-everything PG Derrick Rose.

With the NBA East lacking the depth of the NBA West, the Nets sit only 7.5 games out of the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. So tune in tonight at 7PM ET on YES for game 53 of the 2010-11 season and see if third-year Nets Big Man C Brook Lopez and crew can change things up and a make the Prudential Center a ‘Hornets Net’ instead of a ‘Hornet Nest.’

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Gameday Dish: Miami Heat at Orlando Magic

February 3 by Leave a Comment

The Miami Heat come to the Amway Center tonight to face off against their Sunshine State and Southeast Division rivals, the Orlando Magic. The Heat have been in the NBA one season longer than the Magic and have one Finals appearance and one title. Their central Florida brethren have made two trips to the Finals, once in 1995 and again in 2009, but walked away runners-up each time. As it stands now, both squads are looking up to last year’s Eastern Conference Champs, the Boston Celtics, in the standings.

Miami possesses a 34-14 record, which is tied with the Chicago Bulls for third best in the league – 3 games behind the C’s in the East. One-time Miami Heat coach Stan Van Gundy’s Magic sit 3.5 games behind the Heat at 31-18.

This will be the third of four games matching these two title contenders this season. Each team held court at home in the first two meetings, with Miami blowing out Orlando on October 29th 96-70 in the new Big 3’s third regular season game playing together. Then, on the day before Thanksgiving, the Magic topped Erik Spoelstra’s guys 104-95, behind all-everything big man Dwight Howard’s 18 boards and seventh-year PG Jameer Nelson’s career-high 14 dimes.

The Heat beat LeBron’s former team, the spiraling Cleveland Cavaliers, on Monday in the 305 by 27 points, with another former Cav, Miami’s 7’-3”, thirteenth-year center Zydrunas Ilgauskas grabbing a season-high with 14 total boards including 9 on the offensive end.

Orlando played last on Monday as well, but were on the road in Tennessee where they lost by 3 points to the recently re-charged Memphis Grizzlies. The Magic have been hovering around .500 on the road at 13-12, however in the NBA’s newest, and in commissioner David Stern’s opinion the best, building in basketball, the shiny Amway Center, they’ve compiled a rugged 18-6 mark.

Both sides tonight rank near the top of the league in team rebounding as well as points allowed per game. The Heat are sixth in rebounding and fifth in points allowed in the NBA, while the Magic, led by Howard’s 13.6 rpg and 2.2 blocks per game, are fifth in glass-work and seventh in points allowed.

As if this game needed any more fuel to stoke the competitive fires, Orlando Magic President, former NBA player and native Floridian Otis Smith’s July comments questioning King James’ competitive spirit in reference to his move from his home-state Cavaliers to the recently created and widely dissected super-Triumvirate in Miami are still in the front of the Heat’s collective mind. The fuel in the Miami motivation tank for tonight’s game appears to be on ‘F’. Marv Albert, Steve Kerr and I will be on deck for TNT’s coverage of the Miami Heat at Orlando Magic tonight at 8:00 PM ET.

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Gameday Dish: Celtics at Blazers

January 27 by Leave a Comment

The Boston Celtics, owners of the NBA’s second best record at 34-10, come to The Rose Garden in Portland tonight to take on coach Nate McMillan’s banged-up Blazers. With starters Brandon Roy and Marcus Camby out of the lineup already with serious knee troubles, Portland is hoping that fifth-year PF LaMarcus Aldridge, their active leading scorer and rebounder, will be ready come tip-off against Doc Rivers’ formidable front line.

Aldridge had an MRI on his right hip two days ago after hurting himself in the Blazers’ home loss to Sacramento on Monday night, 96-81. The rare home loss ended Portland’s season-high five-game win streak. Even with the defeat, Portland is an impressive 16-6 on their home floor. At 25-21, the Blazers currently sit 8th in the Western Conference.

A win tonight would carry added importance because six of their next eight contests are on the road and the two home games in this stretch are against the NBA elite – San Antonio Spurs (best record in the league) and Chicago Bulls (fifth-best record in NBA).

The Celtics have had their share of injury woes as well in the 2010-11 campaign. The veteran bigs O’Neal, Jermaine and Shaquille are currently sidelined with an
assortment of aches and dings that come with a
combined 34 years of NBA low-post, trench work
experience. However, in the C’s last game, a Tuesday night home win over the spiraling Cavaliers, starting center Kendrick Perkins made his season debut.

Perk last wore the green and white in game 6 of the NBA Finals in Los Angeles, when he tore his right anterior cruciate ligament. In his first game back, Perkins came off the bench to spell current starting 5-man, Turkish rookie Semih Erden. KP played 18 minutes and had seven points, six boards and three dimes after receiving a lengthy standing ovation from the Garden gathered grateful.

A great matchup to focus on tonight is the point guard duel featuring Portland’s 12th year, wily vet Andre Miller and the dynamic Celtic lead guard Rajon Rondo. Former Kentucky Wildcat Rondo leads the NBA in assists at 12.9 and is second in steals at 2.45. In the Blazers’ loss on December 1st in Beantown, Miller had 20 and 6, while the Celtic QB had 10 and 10.  Also in that game, the longest-tenured Celtic and 2010 3-point Champion Paul Pierce scored a game-high 28 points.

Portland is known as the ‘greenest’ major city in the country. Maybe that’s why the Celtics have been so successful there recently. Boston has won their single regular season visit to Rip City in 7 of the last 10 years, including last year’s 96-76 blowout. Tune in tonight at 10:30 PM ET on TNT as the eastern-most franchise in the NBA visits the league’s western-most franchise.

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Gameday Dish: Los Angeles Clippers @ Portland Trail Blazers

January 20 by Leave a Comment

The Portland Trailblazers, currently in eighth position in the very competitive Western Conference at 23-20, host the Los Angeles Clippers tonight at The Rose Garden. The Blazers have beaten the Clips in both of their meetings so far this season, once in LA and once at home. The big difference tonight is that Portland will be playing without Marcus Camby and Brandon Roy, 40 percent of their starting five.

Both of these First-Teamers participated in the wins over Los Angeles earlier on the schedule.  15th year pro Camby underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee today and will be sidelined for about three weeks.  His inside defensive presence and rebounding will be hard to replace.  The Blazers rank 9th in the NBA in points allowed and a huge part of that is Camby’s shot blocking and altering.

Portland’s top player and 3X All Star Roy has been out since mid-December and on Monday had dual arthroscopic surgery to clean out his problematic knees. His return has been estimated at anywhere from a month to the beginning of next season.

The Blazers beat Sacramento on the road yesterday in OT, 94-90. They were led by third-year, French SF Nicolas Batum, whom scored a season-high 24 points.  As well as Batum, Portland will need big production and efficiency from veteran PG Andre Miller and PF LaMarcus Aldridge while coach Nate McMillan’s team tries to deal with a depleted roster.

On the opposing bench, The Clips come into this game only 16-25 but are on the upswing, having won six of their last seven. They bested a full-strength Heat squad eight days ago, ending Miami’s 13-game road win streak. Also this past Sunday, they beat their Staples Center neighbors and SoCal rivals, the Lakers.

Los Angeles rookie forward Blake Griffin scored a career-high, as well as NBA season high 47 points on Monday at home in a victory against Indiana. This young Clipper is sailing away from all competition for the Rookie of the Year award and may even be performing at a high enough level to be considered for one of the All-NBA year-end teams.

The Clips beat Minnesota last night at home 126-11 and Griffin’s streak of 27 straight double-doubles ended. His impact on the franchise, on the court and in the growing basketball buzz surrounding ‘LA’s other hoops team’ has been significant. He is definitely a player that fans around the league are coming out to see. He leads the NBA in dunks and already just halfway into this season has ‘posterized’ more than a few helpless defenders.

Both teams played and won last night and are riding three-game winning streaks. Tune into TNT tonight at 10:30PM ET to see which Western Conference team will continue its victorious mid-season march.

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