SB Nation - Kobe Bryant

Lakers Stomp Nets, and It's Still About the Greatness of Kobe

Josh Tucker — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:04:32 -0000

Perhaps you read this paragraph, in a recent Y! Sports article by the ever-great Woj:

Yes, the Lakers have a supporting cast for Bryant. He doesn’t have to do as much, but he rarely fails them when called upon in moments of truth. Eventually, Andrew Bynum’s leg could give out again, and Ron Artest could go haywire and the Lakers’ championship chase could still be all about the greatness of Kobe Bryant.

And that's about how it went last night. Oh, minus the injuries and Ron Ron going all Crazy Pills on us.

In the end, this game came down to the start of the third quarter, where Kobe gave his teammates another chance to get it going, waited about two minutes, then got pissed off (not to mention tired of the Josh Powell show) and ripped off 6 quick points without even seeming to try. He dominated in the third quarter, in which the Lakers followed his lead to a 12-point swing, going into the 4th up 10 after being down 2 at half.

Gasol and Fisher were the first to pick up Kobe's energy, and the Lakers' defense took it up a notch in the 4th, as well. In the end, it was a good second half and ended in an oh-so-tasty blowout, just as it should have been all along.

Not thrilled with the minutes the starters had to play (though Andrew Bynum should be nice and rested after fouling out in a mere 11 minutes of court time) — but then, this is the road, and beggars can't be choosers. We've had plenty of rest to start the season and a good couple days before this, so as far as I'm concerned, a road win is a road win, and if the starters play a few more minutes than we'd prefer ... well, I'm not crying over any spilt milk.

A dominant all-around performance from Kobe: 12-23 for 29 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal, and a monster block. Only two turnovers, which hopefully is a sign of good ball-handling adjustment to his finger injury.

Gasol had a quiet but effective night, turning in 14/14/6, and Lamar Odom had one of his better games in a while — his 14/12/4 line serving as a reminder that the Lakers can be a-okay even when missing a big man, every now and then.

Here are your numbers for the night. Note the very excellent Points Per Possession Numbers — that 0.88 defensive PPP just might be enough to drop us below Boston for the Defensive Efficiency lead, making LA the undisputed best defense in the NBA (statistically) — last I checked, we already own the defensive FG%, eFG%, and TS%.

	Poss	TO%	FTA/FGA	FT%	EFG%	TS%	Off Reb%	Def Reb%	PPP
LA	92	13	0.16	79	53	56	25	80	1.13
NJ	94	9	0.33	70	40	45	20	75	0.88

Poll: Which Orlando Magic Player is the Most Effective in Crunch Time

erivera7 — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:01:37 -0000

More photos » by Wilfredo Lee - AP

Is Dwight Howard the player you want with the ball if the game is on the line?

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Today, Henry Abbott of TrueHoop sparked a debate in the blogosphere concerning "crunch time performers" with Kobe Bryant at the center of the discussion (John Schuhmann of NBA.com provided some more information). Of course, the popular question has always been - who is the most effective player in the NBA with the game on the line?

Clutch being defined by 82games as "4th quarter or overtime, less than 5 minutes left, neither team ahead by more than 5 points."

But wait. I want to focus the question on the Orlando Magic.

Normally, I'd provide the statistics beforehand so that people are able to get the most accurate, detailed information before developing an opinion one way or the other. But this time, I want to withhold the data available to see what people think without the aid of numbers. Consider this poll a perception (what people perceive) vs. reality (what the stats show) test.

I'll let the poll run for a few days then next Monday in a follow-up post, I'll see whether or not the statistics agree or disagree with what the popular opinion is.

Let the experiment begin.

Poll

Who is the most effective player on the Orlando Magic roster with the game on the line?

Assessing the Hornets Loss a Little Late

Packey — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:00:23 -0000

Surely, by now you've already read what went down two nights ago. The Pistons scored 55 first half points (28 in the first and 27 in the second) and only scored 32 points in the second half. They led by 13 at the half and were winning by as many as 14-points in the third quarter. Yet somehow they found a way to lose by eight in the end.

So how did it happen?

We can cop out and say that the Pistons simply wore down, which I guess, could have definitely beeen the case. The Pistons have three major players out with injuries (a problem all season) and were playing the second game of a back-to-back on the road. However, I'm not willing to go through an entire season letting them get off the hook on the "injury bug" and "tired (because of the injuries)" excuses when they've proven before that it's not crippling them as much as one might think it should or would. For instance, take a look at that Denver game a week ago. It was the second game of a back-to-back against a Western Conference powerhouse, minus four of the better players on the roster. The Pistons controlled that game and won. This was the same Pistons team that played that night -- plus Will Bynum.

What stood out to me Wednesday was the Pistons lack of ball movement in the fourth quarter. At the three minute mark in the third quarter, Detroit had a remarkable 21 assists. They were well on their way to 28-30 assists, which is unheard of territory for the Pistons this season. Want to know how many assists the Pistons finished with? 22. The Pistons had just six second half assists compared to the (doing the math in my head, uh) 16 assists in the first half. If that's not a glaring statistic, I don't know what is.

And then there is the play of Rodney Stuckey. It has become increasingly clear that the Pistons go as Stuckey goes. When he puts up a solid game shooting and doesn't need roughly 20+ shots to do it, the Pistons tend to do well (Pistons are 7-2 when he shoots 50% or higher on less than 20 attempts from the field. They are 2-5 when he shoots 20+ times at all). It's not some groundbreaking discovery that the Pistons have a better chance of winning when their starting guard plays well. However, critiquing his play continuously resurfaces because he, time and time again, resorts to the style of play that makes him play poorly and in turn, hurts the Pistons.

On Wednesday night, Stuckey took nine shots in the fourth quarter alone (he made three of those). In the final minutes, he forced three (missed) shots and had a bad turnover that led to a Hornets basket, which gave them a four point lead. This isn't a box score statistic, but I cringed all three times Stuckey went up with those final shot attempts.

In Stuckey's defense, the rest of the Pistons weren't really helping. The only source of offense was Charlie Villanueva, and he missed all of his shot attempts (four) in the fourth quarter (which was a double whammy because David West was still scoring on him on the other side). Even if Stuckey was feeling the pressure of needing to carry the offensive load, I still would like to see less painfully obvious, forced shots from him and more dishes after the initial penetration.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the Pistons were presented with serious match up problems the past two games in Luis Scola and David West. Take this bit from Patrick Hayes at MLIVE:

The frontcourt defense is broken. The simple answer is to put Ben Wallace on the opposing team's best big every game, which works great against back-to-the-basket players like Dwight Howard.

Having Ben guard players like West and Scola, however, pulls him out of the paint, takes away the shot-blocking threat and allows guys like Aaron Brooks and Chris Paul to get into the lane at will.

Patrick goes on to add that the "opposing PFs/Cs have shot a combined 42-for-65 (65 percent) against Detroit over the last two games," which has a lot to do with the opposing guards getting into the lane at will and creating easy baskets for their bigs. Scola and West combined for 55 points, more than Villanueva/Wallace combined for in both games (I used CV because he's playing the starter minutes).

The Pistons will finish off this three game road trip with the Thunder before going home to face Kobe Bryant and the Lakers on Sunday. Let's hope we see a steady game this time around and end the road woes. It would certainly help to get some guys back from injuries, but ultimately, this team is capable of winning regardless.

A few thoughts after the jump.

A large chunk of the assists (nine) came from Will Bynum on Wednesday. There's no denying his individual points production is sorely missed, so let's hope those new shoes are starting to feel comfortable.
After seeing what Jonas Jerebko is capable of putting up on offense, it's too bad he only scored six points (on 3-3 shooting) when the Pistons needed someone other than Stuckey & Villanueva to step up. J.J. was also a team-worse negative-16 (by six points), so it could have helped that number, too.
Chris Paul is pretty amazing and fun to watch. Blaha was comparing him to Isiah Thomas during the broadcast, and I couldn't help but feel the same way. He scored 16 points on just nine shots and had 12 assists in what was looking like an off game at the half.
Emeka Okafor is a guy I'd love to see in a Pistons uniform. In my four years of college near Charlotte, North Carolina I saw a lot of his games with the Bobcats and grew to be a big fan of his. He finished with 15 points and eight rebounds.
Austin Daye is earning himself more and more minutes. He saw 25 on Wednesday and scored nine points on 3-8 shooting. He was 2-5 from downtown and had three rebounds, as well. I've said this before, but I wouldn't mind seeing him get more looks.
As it hurt the Hornets in the first half, turnovers played a big role in Detroit's second half collapse, too. They had 16 and a few of them came at crucial points in the fourth quarter.
Highlights:
I apologize for not getting a proper recap up in a more timely fashion. I didn't think I would have been able to post a productive recap on Wednesday night and unexpected things came up on Thursday to prevent me from weighing in. If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure that's the first time since I've started this blog that I haven't had a (legit) recap posted within 12 hours of the game ending.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you think went wrong on Wednesday or what the Pistons need to do differently on Friday. One thing is for sure -- freaking win !

NBA Eastern Conference: Taking Stock

tenaciousT — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:04:32 -0000

NBA –arama

After making my preseason predictions, I said I'd check how things were going from time to time. It's time. Let's take a look around the east, see what’s going on, and fess up to a few big misses. A number of predictions are on target...so far. Preseason predictions are in parentheses followed by current record

Atlantic Division

Boston Celtics (63-19) - 20-4
Thought they were going gently into their assisted living facilities, eh? Tut tut, my skeptical friends. The ‘assisted living’ comes courtesy of one Rajon Rondo, point guard extraordinaire. Rondo plays one gear higher than the rest of his starting unit.

11 game win streak says they are rounding into shape after starting strong, stumbling, then slowly righting the ship. The only major surprise was/is the lack of 48 minute intensity, and rebounding woes. They still look like one of the best teams in the NBA to challenge the Lakers. Back with a vengeance? They are back. Vengeance comes later.

Toronto (35-47) - 11-17
International crisis or communication breakdown?
Some expected more, but they are about where I expected and for the same reason – defense. Bargnani is part of the dilemma. He is a skilled big, but not an interior presence. With a domestic vs. international player rift surfacing recently, the Raps played their best defensive game of the season afterwards. Hedo’s not fitting in like they hoped…yet.

Jose Calderon has disappointed so far in what was supposed to be his big year. The rebuilt roster should be better later in the season, but aren’t built for prolonged defense. They are giving up 103.5 over their last 5 games, which 5 points better than before.

New York (31-51) - 8-16
After a 3-14 start, the ‘D’Antonies’ are 5-2 in their last 7 games. Another team without interior defense. They looked under every rock for a bona fide PG but the right one – the draft. Biggest current embarrassment is choosing Jordan Hill over Brandon Jennings in the draft. This was going to be a learning year anyway, right? Ty Lawson, Darren Collison, Eric Maynor, Jeff Teague were also still out there. Any of those better than Chris Duhon? Maybe some are already.

D’Antoni, frankly, has disappointed as well. I’ll confess, I thought Darko Milicic was a good risk for a team starved for bigs that block shots and play defense. Go figure. Jordan Hill may end up being a good player some day, too. Winning started by benching Nate Robinson. Coincidence? Sharp shooter Gallinari continues to impress, adds some board work.

76ers (41-41) – 6-19
Okay, this is one that’s not going as I thought it would. Oye.
Injuries are only part of the problem. Is Brand a lesser player now? Or is he just on the wrong team? Maybe it’s all bad karma for Elton leaving a good situation in Clipperland. (Yes, I did just say that.) Louis Williams (injured), Marreese Speights, and Thaddeus Young give hope for the future. It’s so bad that Iverson is back. Yeah, I know.

New Jersey (26-56) – 2-24
Say no more. Accident on the Jersey Turnpike. Tie up for miles, but not for years. No, they are not this bad. Bad luck continues with Yi Jianlian getting 50 stitches (yes 50) in his mouth courtesy of a Sean Williams elbow in a recent practice. The sooner this team can exit the swamp the better. Still, Brook Lopez will become an even better player if this season doesn’t kill him first. Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, Chris Douglas-Roberts are all good young talent.

Central Division

Cleveland (58-24) – 19-7
They are much better after starting 0-2 and 3-3. Not dominating like last season, but still a force. Shaq shooting a career low 49%, though they are now winning with him. Most lopsided team scoring distribution I have ever seen for a top team. Only three players in double digits and one of them is Shaq at 10.8 per.

Second best FG% defense and 4th best points allowed means they are still dangerous and in the hunt. Though Shaq is mostly a sideways or backwards move, if they get to the finals he helps against Lakers’ frontline. Shaq can’t slow down an already very slow team…can he? I feared this team more last year. Stop LeBron and you stop the Cavs. Am I wrong?

Stat of note: Cavs lead league in points in paint defense (34.1)

Milwaukee (35-47) – 11-12
Early season surprise coming back to earth lately. Many thought I had them too high. But Skiles always seems to get players to overachieve for a few years, until his tough guy ways get tired. Brandon Jennings makes a big splash with 55 point game but is tailing off since then. Still, he is the real deal and will figure things out.

Bucks are first in shot attempts and dead last in free throw attempts, which pretty much goes hand in hand. No one on this team gets to the line, except Jennings and Hakim Warrick.

Side Note: Toronto is known as the international team. But even they can’t compete with Milwaukee. Current starters are from 5 different countries: Turkey, Argentina, Australia, Cameroon, and U.S. Positively cosmopolitan for a city Shlitz beer made famous.

Detroit (36-46) - 11-14
I guess they are a bit better than I thought. Will this last? Even with key players injured, they put together a recent 5 game winning streak. They are still working a new system with a new coach. Loss of Tayshaun Prince hurts, Gordon is playing hurt, and Rip Hamilton is still in and out.

Still, the biggest surprise is the renaissance of "I’m retiring" Ben Wallace. Back up to 30 minutes and 10 rebounds a game, he can still defend, too. Detroit is 2nd best in points in paint defense. Can he do it all year and where is his help?

Pistons have the 3rd best total rebounding and 3rd best offensive rebounding differential in the league. Rodney Stuckey’s career year (19.3 pts) is offset by lower shooting %. He should stop taking three pointers altogether (21.4%)

Indiana (30-52) – 9-14
Danny Granger’s team is without Danny Granger for a while. With mediocre stats everywhere, just what do they do better than most NBA teams? Foul. They are 3rd in league with 2.2 foul differential.

Mike Dunleavy returns to a system that uses him to his best advantage and not a minute too soon. If the Pacers win 36 games, and that’s possible, that means O’Brien would have coached three straight 36-46 records here. Hey I have to find something interesting, don’t I? T.J. Ford is underwhelming again.

How are they doing attracting more fans? The past three years they went from 30th to 28th to 27th this season in attendance. They are a team with more integrity, but a few more wins wouldn’t hurt, would it?

Chicago (41-41) - 8-15 No one expected this meltdown. The loss of Ben Gordon’s 4th quarter points, Tyrus Thomas’ injury, Kirk Hinrich playing hurt, John Salmons’ underachieving season are all contributors, but all are secondary to Derrick Rose’s lack of noticeable improvement.

The chant for Vinny Del Negro’s head grows louder and I’m not against it. But I’d ask…who hired a rookie head coach for this team in the first place? That is where the blame should lie. Del Negro did reasonably well last season, but the wheels are falling off the wagon now.

Deng is playing well and Joakim Noah is continuing his rise up the food chain, but it’s nowhere near enough. I am fast becoming a Joakim Noah fan. Plays with passion, toughness, and heart.

Southeast Division

Orlando (60-22) -19-6
Fools go where wise men fear to tread – the paint against the Magic. They are crazy deep and probably Boston’s biggest problem in the East. Jameer Nelson returns soon and that’s not good news for opponents. Right now they are better offensively (5th rated) but worse defensively (9th rated) than last season, while giving up 2.2 more points.

This is a great situation for Vince Carter, who is playing 5 minutes less, but leads the team in scoring (19), while still hoisting up 17 shots per and will be a solid 4th quarter option for the Magic.

D. Howard is getting one less block a game, but shooting a career high in FG% (63.4%) While they probably over paid a bit for Mickael Pietrus ($5.3 mil), he continues to be a valuable piece to this team. Ryan Andersen has quietly been a nice addition. Marcin Gortat – the unhappy multi-millionaire.

Atlanta (48-34) - 18-6
This team is playing even better than I thought….and I thought this would be a good team. Woodson said the next thing is to learn how to win on the road. The Hawks are 7-4 so far this season and that is a huge step forward. Three of those road wins were against very tough home teams - Dallas, Boston and Portland.

For a team that could lose their leader (Joe Johnson) and their coach next season, they are moving from pretender to contender. Their youthful exuberance could make up for whatever they are missing. Al Horford and Josh Smith are unique young players and Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson provide the veteran leadership. They are pasting the lesser teams and are 3rd in the league in average winning margin at +8.4 points. Just behind the Celtics and Lakers. Hmm…

Miami (38-44) – 12-11
Dwayne Wade is to this team what LeBron is to the Cavs. Probably more so. Jermaine O’Neal is actually playing pretty well, but is a shell of his earlier self. We knew going in that the Heat go as Wade goes. Michael Beasley is improving and Haslem is solid.

They stretched the Lakers to a (lucky) Kobe Bryant banked buzzer beating 3 pointer over Wade’s outstretched hand. That probably defines their season as well as anything. With $50 million coming off the books in 2010, this team (hopefully) gets a complete rebuild. With a player option for $17 million, whether Wade stays or not remains to be seen.

Charlotte (33-49) - 10-14
Solid defensive team (2nd in points allowed) that has trouble scoring (27th). Deliberate offense (pace: 28th in NBA) helps keep opponents’ numbers down. 5-5 over the last ten, they added controversial, but multi-talented Stephen Jackson. It gives the team a focal point (and… gulp…leader) Larry Brown has great experience handling prima donna players and Raymond Felton is playing better since Jackson’s arrival.

Gerald Wallace, the last original Bobcat, was plucked from deep on Sacramento’s bench. Time to test him for HRH (Human Rebound Hormone). He has gone crazy boarding, up from 7.8 last season to 12.2 this year. I’d like to know the last time an established player made that kind of jump. He continues to ply his game for a team going nowhere.

Talented DJ Augustine has perplexingly gone backwards this season. Tyson Chandler, who could have been an earlier version of Joakim Noah, is showing how much Chris Paul helped his game.

But we forget just how bad this team was before Larry Brown arrived.

Washington (41-41) - 7-16
In preseason I wrote…. "everyone’s favorite ‘move up’ team." What I didn’t write was that it would take some doing to keep all these scorers happy with shots and minutes. Unfortunately, that appears to be the case. And things aren’t getting better. They are on a 6 game losing streak as I write this.

I never saw a happier, more hopeful team in the losers’ locker room than the one that ended its season against the Celtics last year. They all knew a much better year was coming. They had their version of a big three returning. But ubuntu doesn’t live here. Tragic because there is a lot of talent here. Flip Saunders has to sort this out, but I’m not sure where he starts.

I’ll end by (again) making my pitch for an unsung role player buried on the Wizards bench. Dominic McGuire would make a great (and cheap) Celtic.

There you have it. I apparently thought way too much of the Sixers. Comments welcome on all teams.

Kobe More Clutch Than Jordan? Juuust A Bit Outside

aramnath — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:13:37 -0000

More photos » by Gary Dineen - NBAE/Getty Images

Kobe Bryant is a great player and has made a number of clutch shots, but he still can't come compare to Jordan. (Photo by Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images)

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Today on ESPN's 1st and 10 Jemele Hill proved why she should not have a job analyzing sports, particularly professional basketball. On the show she debated two points with Skip Bayless. The first was who between Kobe and Jordan was more clutch and the second was who was better at the age of 20, Durant or Lebron.

On the first point Jemele stated that Kobe was a better clutch player than His Airness. Am I a Kobe hater? Yes. Do I accept that Kobe Bryant is one of the 15 greatest players in NBA history? Yes.

To even put Kobe's ability to perform in pressure situations on the same level as Jordan's is absolutely ridiculous.

In 6 NBA Finals appearances, Jordan won six titles and six Finals MVP trophies with several game-winning Finals shots, including Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, his last Finals appearance.

Kobe has also made 6 Finals appearances, winning 4 titles, 3 with the most dominating center of this era and has won a total of one Finals MVP trophy. He has made one game-winning Finals shot against the Pistons in Game 2 of the 2004 NBA Finals, a series the Lakers went on to lose comprehensively 4-1.

Jordan averaged 33.4 points in the playoffs, the all-time record, on 48.7% shooting from the field to go along with averages of 6.4 rebounds and 5.7 assists. All of these are increases from his regular season averages.

Kobe also has impressive playoff averages of 25.0 points on 44.7% shooting to go with 5.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists. His points and rebounds average slightly decrease from his regular season totals and his field goal percentage is nearly an entire percent lower than his regular season average. His assists average goes up by 0.1.

The fact that you can't hand check players and that the level of contact allowed now is far less than during MJ's prime makes it even more amazing to see what Jordan accomplished. I could keep going on, but if you want more proof of how in every way Jordan is more clutch, check out these stats.

Bryant: Career Achievements and Playoff Stats

Jordan: Career Achievements and Playoff Stats

Now her second argument was that Durant as 20 year-old was slightly better than James simply because he had a better outside touch. This is the most ridiculous premise to determine who's a better player because it simply neglects other aspects of the game.

Durant's average of 25.3 points per game on 47.6% shooting is outstanding. He also averaged 6.5 rebounds and 2.8 assists. All in all an extremely impressive second year in the league at the age of 20.

James played with more pressure on him as a phenom in his second year than Durant has ever experienced and averaged 27.2 points on 47.2% shooting. I will agree with Jemele that Durant has a more polished perimeter shooting game at this age than James had at that age. However James averaged 7.4 rebounds and a ridiculous 7.2 assists as well. He also averaged one more steal per game than Durant (2.2 to 1.3).

None of this is to say that Kobe is not a great player or that Durant is not one of the most talented young players in the history of the NBA. However to compare Kobe's or any player's pressure situation abilities to Jordan's is an act of stupidity anybody who watched playoff games in the 90's knows without looking at the numbers. Similarly Lebron's all-around game was so much more advanced than Durant's at the same age that looking at one aspect such as perimeter scoring and then using that as a basis to determine a better player is perhaps an even greater act of stupidity.

Then again rooting for the Celtics is exactly like rooting for Hitler, right Jemele?

Kobe and Pau Rock Milwaukee

DexterFishmore — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:47:30 -0000

It's so nice when loyalty is rewarded. You sit through two-and-a-half hours of a December game in Milwaukee, an often dreary game at that, and as a fan you deserve something fun to show for it. Stay cool, stay patient, don't change the channel, don't head out to dinner just yet. Kobe Bryant will make it worth your while.

Playing stage two of a road back-to-back set, the Lakers spent the night scuffling with a feisty Bucks squad - sometimes pulling a bit ahead, sometimes falling a bit behind, never quite seizing the win nor conceding the loss. Pau Gasol was beastly from beginning to end. He had a double-dub by halftime and finished with 26 points, 22 rebounds, four assists and four blocks. Kobe was on-and-off with his game, struggling with turnovers again but manufacturing points from midrange and the stripe. At the end of regulation, he missed a 15-footer that could have won the game.

At the end of overtime, though, he buried the shot that changed everything. It was a little 16-foot turnaround that we've seen a hundred times from him. The trajectory was perfectly on target, and it brought about a fairly stunning comeback win. The final score was Lake Show 107, Bucks 106.

To get to that final possession with the game still in reach, a number of strange little events had to fall into place. With the game tied and 50 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Michael Redd fired a three that went half way down the basket before popping out. A Derek Fisher jump shot later, Andrew Bogut hit a turnaround in the post, tying the game once again, and drew the "And 1." With 20 seconds on the clock, however, he biffed the free throw that would've put Milwaukee ahead. The Lakers lived to fight in overtime.

The Laker D, which had started to splinter in the fourth, really started to crack apart in the extra stanza. In their first six OT possessions, the Bucks scored 11 points to open up a six-point lead. Despair's icy hand tickled the back of every Laker fan's neck. Phil Jackson was riding the first unit hard - Kobe would end up playing 50 minutes, Pau 49 - and heavy legs were starting to show. Redd, Luke Ridnour and Ersan Ilyasova were both finding makeable looks and actually making them.

Kobe responded with a nine-foot J to make it 102-106, and then the weirdness really started. Ilyasova (who had a wonderful game) went to the line for two shots and honked them both. On the following Laker possession, Kobe spun into a lane bristling with Bucks defenders and crashed into Andrew Bogut while flipping the ball up and in. Whistle. And 1. Free-throw good, cue Milwaukee fan outrage.

Still with the lead and the ball, the Bucks proceeded to miss two shots before Ron Artest secured the rebound with seven seconds to play. The game-ender, as seen below, is uncut, grade-A schadenfreude. Watch it, watch it again, and then a couple more times just for giggles.

The Lakers are now 20-4 and get two days off before facing New Jersey on Saturday. There are a couple things they need to clean up. Three-point shooting continues to be awful: the Lakers have made only 11 of 57 attempts from distance over the last three games. They need to start knocking them down. Offensive rebounding also needs to improve, as they've recovered less than 20% of their own misses for two straight games now. Pau is a monster on the boards these days, but he's not getting much help.

There will be time to worry about those things tomorrow. Tonight, all of Lakerdom toasts the Black Mamba.

	Poss.	TO%	FTA/ FGA	FT%	EFG%	TS%	Off Reb%	Def Reb%	PPP
L.A.	102	17	0.42	88	50	58	17	76	1.05
Mil.	102	13	0.17	71	47	50	24	83	1.04

Houston Rockets Still Ballin'

aramnath — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:56:45 -0000

More photos » by Rick Bowmer - AP

Head coach Rick Adelman's kept his team competitive even with his two best players out with injuries so far this season. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

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It's time to show some love to this year's Houston Rockets. They have been playing without their two superstars, Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, all season and have managed to start out with a 14-10 record. That's good enough for second in the Southwest Division and for fifth in the conference. To put things in perspective, the Rockets have had to replace a combined 35.3 points, 14.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game without both Yao and McGrady.

Most predicted the team would be lucky to be competing for the 8th seed in the conference with a roster full of role players. This team of role players however has thrived utilizing a long lost art previously used in the NBA to great success called sharing the ball. They have been led by point guard Aaron Brooks with valuable contributions from Carl Landry, Luis Scola and a bench that has shown surprising depth particularly rookie Chase Budinger.

Their major free-agent signing Trevor Ariza, has been a disappointment offensively so far, averaging 17.0 points per game while shooting an abysmal 38.3% from the field. To his credit however, Ariza and the No Stats All-Star, Shane Battier, have teamed up to harass opposing teams' wing players to help lead a Rockets defense that has been able to remain effective without their 7'6 Chinaman shot-blocker in the middle.

Special praise is in order for head coach Rick Adelman who has done a phenomenal job calling the shots from the sidelines. I don't think it's much of a debate for who should be Coach of the Year. It would have been easy for this team to simply play out the year listlessly without their two stars, but Adelman has kept them on the winning path and has extracted more from his players than anybody could have expected.

Here's to the Houston Rockets for playing team ball with a bunch of role players and still getting the job done when nobody gave them much of a chance.

Robert Horry may be gone (from the NBA) but not forgotten

grungedave — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:48:38 -0000

With the close of December... we're beginning to see a lot of "best of the 2000s"/end of the decade sort of material. Which is cool. I like retrospectives. It's an analog to top-10 lists -- which is always a writer's crutch for story ideas.

This time around though, it brings us back to the blog's secondary purpose... getting Robert Horry into the Hall of Fame! And Robert Horry is going to be found everywhere in these best of the 2000s stories. He won rings in five of the 10 years of the decade (no one else can say that. Not even Steve Kerr this time!)

So, while Robert Horry is no longer an active player in the NBA... we'll have to settle for these reminders of his overall awesomeness. And if SI.com is any indication, the last ten years of the NBA have been dominated by the likes of Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, the FatAss, LeBron James....... and Big Shot Rob.

See for yourself.

Here (signature moment of the decade)
Here (best free agent signings)
and here (top games of the decade).

Also of note... the Rockets' 22 game winning streak is listed as a memorable performance. Hell yes it was! An even more memorable performance? Lee predicting it. True story.

Lakers Victorious in Basketball Contest

DexterFishmore — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:27:58 -0000

It's just as well the Lakers have a game on their schedule for Wednesday night. Tuesday's victory over the decaying organism known as the Chicago Bulls isn't one that we necessarily want to dwell on. It was choppy, uninspired and closer than it should have been. If the Lakers win another championship this year, very little from Tuesday's game will appear on the season-commemorative DVD. The final score was 96 to 87.

The good news, aside from the basic fact of the team's 19th win, is the return of Kobe Bryant's offensive game after the nightmare in Utah. Looking energized and much more comfortable with his jump shot, he dropped in 42 points on 64% True Shooting. His eight turnovers mean this won't go into the archives as one of his all-time great outings, but he did what needed done. It's not like there were a ton of other great scoring options on this occasion.

Aside from Kobe and Shannon Brown (4 for 4 off the bench), nobody on the Lakers had a good shooting night. The three-point game in particular continues to look ugly. After making only 3 of 21 from distance in Utah, the Lakers improved all the way to 4 for 20. Yuck. It was also a bad night on the boards.

The defense, however, by and large showed up. It didn't start out that way - the Bulls scored 14 points on their first eight possessions - but by midway through the first quarter the Laker D had its act together. Joakim Noah probably should not have been allowed to snare 14 offensive rebounds, though.

So northward to Milwaukee we go, 1-1 on the current road trip. Winning the second half of this back-to-back will require a cleaner, tighter performance.

	Poss.	TO%	FTA/ FGA	FT%	EFG%	TS%	Off Reb%	Def Reb%	PPP
L.A.	92	15	0.32	80	48	53	16	59	1.04
Chicago	92	15	0.17	69	40	42	41	84	0.95

Lakers 96, Bulls 87: Effort slumps, talent doesn't

your friendly BullsBlogger — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:04:41 -0000

More photos » by Jim Prisching - AP

Kobe Bryant reminds Derrick Rose that he'll be a free agent eventually, and L.A. is indeed sunny. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

Browse more photos »

	Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
LA Lakers	93.0	103.2	48.1%	25.3	17.1	14.0
Chicago		93.5	39.6%	11.5	41.5	12.9

Before firing up the DVR for this one, I checked ShouldIWatch?com, and figured the 20 point loss. Nope. And it wasn't a 15, nor 10 point loss either. It was a 9 point loss after Luol Deng hit a meaningless three as the clock expired. If only the algorithms could've been tweaked to account for such things...

Though I'm actually glad it didn't. Not that I wouldn't watch it anyway, but watching and knowing the result would've made this certainly less enjoyable, as even though it never really felt like the Bulls were going to beat the Lakers Tuesday night, it shockingly didn't feel like an impossibility either.

The Bulls certainly dished their best opening blow, shooting a crazy percentage and 31 points (the Bulls!). But Kobe Bryant had 20 on his own and the Lakers scored 31 too. Right then it was correct to be worried, and over the course of the game the Bulls reverted to their cruddy shooting percentage and offensive inefficiency.

But they did certainly bring more effort than they had against much worse opponents, most evident on the offensive glass, headlined by Noah's incredible 14 rebounds on that end (20 overall). Noah was all over the Lakers less-mobile frontcourt tonight, another achievement in his season, possibly the lone undeniable bright spot for the Bulls in the year so far.

Other solid nights from Brad Miller, Derrick Rose (who came back from an early rib(?) injury and exploited the Lakers poor defensive PGs) and Kirk Hinrich, who managed to make me think of his defense as simultaneously underrated for the way he guarded Kobe Bryant, yet overrated because it didn't matter. Bryant's game is so refined, and any further praise is better left to those watching him more, as I'm guessing we only got a sample. And while the Bulls would try help, the passes and movement (real 'ball movement', not the wing-it-around-the-perimeter-hot-potato-until-the-clock-runs-out stuff the Bulls do) would also make them pay, though an awful shooting night from Ron Artest and a fairly passive (though give Noah credit for this) night from Pau Gasol made the pain much less than the usual Lakers dominance.

And sure, if the Bulls played like this every night they may have won more games up until now. But while they (I dunno, someone's said it somewhere) say shooting can slump but effort doesn't, effort undoubtedly isn't there for all 82 games. It can't be, and the franchise's unreasonable reliance on it for success keeps them from being as good as the teams the rely on talent.

It does indicate that the Bulls haven't completely given up on VDN. They're still a professional group, and while it means they're not tanking games before they step on the court, they also know within a game when they don't have it. Tonight they started hot and stayed close. But we can't expect any trend to come of it, as the effort wouldn't always need to be there if they were a better assembled and coached team.

A couple random things that bugged me:

I'm going over old territory, but why does Neil Funk insist on ripping players from opposing teams? I'm all for making fun of the less fortunate or able (in basketball, and in life!), but the Bulls are one of the worst teams in the league. Pau Gasol is miles better than any player the team has had in 10 years. Yet they spent the whole game ripping his play. Can't they instead laud Joakim Noah for doing what he did against great players like Gasol? Neil Funk sucks and he's blind. (alright, I did like him and King using Kobe's performance to further rip dancin' Lebron)
Shannon Brown had a nice game, giving token pressure to Rose and shooting perfect from the field, ranging from a 3-pointer to a thunderous breakaway dunk. I won't fully commit a 'why couldn't my favorite sports team keep that guy they once had who is now good on another team!' rant, but it is a bit annoying that the Bulls couldn't even give him (even though he was an impending free agent) more than a 22 minute tryout during a completely lost season. A real Org. during such a year tells bozo interim coaches to play guys like this over Larry Hughes.