THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2

CLIPPERS-NUGGETS

Nice win for the Clippers against a solid Denver team. Denver isn't quite among the league elites, but they're athletic and deep, and a team that's completely healthy for the first time in a while. Not to mention that this was also a game where Brand was sub-par...the elite teams find a way to win when their best player is having an off night, and the Clippers did just that.

Sam Cassell, shut my mouth. Cassell somehow shook off the criticism I heaped upon his shoulders all preseason and looked like the hideous alien freak of old, popping for an unbelievable 35/6/6 last night. I would think my humble blog played some small part in motivating the old man, if only, you know, he had any fucking idea who I was.

Anyway, looks like Ghost of Jim Murray is actually Mike Dunleavy, as Dunleavy/Ghost came to the conclusion that it's not quite yet Livingston time & demoted the youngster to the bench. I wouldn't worry too much about the 13 minutes of PT for Livingston, I think that was just a one-game anomaly. Cassell was playing out of his mind, and he can't go 35 minutes a night anyway. I go back to my original prediction: they split time to start the year and Livingston gets more and more of the minutes as the season progresses. No reason to burn out Cassell before the playoff run.

Maggette had a nice game after his bout with food poisoning, apparently well past the "12 hours of all-orifice expulsion" stage. He had 13/7/2 in 29 minutes with 10 FT attempts. I expect him to be around those numbers all year. Maybe a bit higher in PPG, but they're so deep, I don't think he'll go for 20 a night like he did two years ago.

Tim Thomas had a great game with 21 points & 5 threes. There was obviously a huge concern coming into the year that Thomas would revert back to being...well...Tim Thomas, instead of the active & hard-working player he was with Phoenix. Personally, I think he looks great in the first two games. He's active, he's playing decent defense, he's rebounding, and he's 6-13 from three. So far, so good.

On the other side, I like what JR Smith gives them. I like it, I don't love it. He had 21 points and knocked down 4 threes (in *11* attempts!). He's going to get those open outside shots all day as teams try to stop Melo, Miller and their bigs in the paint--if he can knock down 35+% of his threes, that really opens things up for the rest of the team. Denver has quite a bit of talent, but they just keep heading into season after season with almost no deep threat. Seems like these guys are a dime a dozen, why can't they snag an Eddie House type of gunner?

Nene looked good with 10 & 7 in just 14 minutes. He's an active, energetic player, he can be productive if he stays healthy. Maybe not "10 fucking million dollars a year" productive, but productive.

Camby was huge in his quest to be Defensive Player of the Year, with 16 & 18 and 4 blocks. He also threw in 4 assists for good measure.

Andre Miller stunk up the joint sideways, shooting 0-11 from the floor--an embarassment when you're being guarded mostly by a 47-year-old alien with down's syndrome. Kenyon Martin wasn't fantastic, but he was healthy and active, and that's the big thing. He snagged 10 boards, but struggled with his offensive game quite a bit.

SPURS-MAVERICKS

Wow, there's a lot of talent on these two teams. And I can't believe how sharp they were for the first week of the season. The quality of basketball wasn't much worse than in their epic playoff series last year.

The Spurs won on the road, which is obviously a great win, and looked very impressive doing it.

All the talk about Duncan being "the healthiest he's been in years" might be somewhat overstated, he still looks a bit creaky and slow to me. I suppose any mobility at all is better than last year, but let's get one thing straight--this still isn't the 2002-2003 Duncan, and I don't think we're ever going to see that guy again. He's got a lot of mileage on him and suffered a lot of injuries--big and small--over the years. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's still one of the best players in the league. I'm just saying he appears to me to be past his absolute peak.

The Spurs started Fabricio Oberto at center, but I don't know how long he can hold off Francisco Elson. I always liked Elson in Denver, and he played well last night with 12 & 6 with 2 blocks in 26 minutes (compared to 4 & 2 with 1 block in 15 minutes for Oberto). The Spurs also have the promising Jackie Butler, who played pretty well for the Knicks last year in limited minutes. How do they keep piling up quality big men when half the teams in the league are throwing guys like Vitaly Potapenko and Mark Madsen on the floor?

Speakign of quality big men, Dampier and Diop might not exactly be Olajuwon and Sampson (pre-injury), but they rebound and play D, giving the Mavs a better center situation than 90% of the rest of the league. The two-headed monster had a strong start to the season, combining for 11 & 14 with 4 blocks. Dampier, however, in an effort to disprove my notion that he's a solid player, inexplicably turned the ball over 5 times. How many goddamn times did he even touch the ball on offense, like 7? Nice hands, big fella.

Josh Howard was his usual ubiqitous self, making plays all over the court. He put up very good numbers with 20/6/4 with a steal & 2 blocks, possibly proving Speer right that he's ready to make that jump to the cusp of the fantasy elite.

Dirk had a quiet night with just 21, but played only 32 minutes because of foul trouble (which included a couple bullshit calls, IMO).

Austin Croshere stepped nicely into the Van Horn role (in fact I thought he *was* Van Horn for the entire first half)--12 points in 15 minutes, including a couple threes. Nice pickup for them, he's a good player if all you ask him to do is shoot.

Devin Harris got off to a disappointing start with just 2 points in 14 minutes on 1-6 shooting. I still think he's going to break out this year--not to superstardom, but somewhere between superstardom and "good 20-minute guy off the bench". He's just too damned quick and athletic not to be better than a 20-minute guy; in today's NBA, being able to get to the basket at will is practically the most valuable skill a player can have.

A "DNP -- Coach's Decision" for Maurice Ager. He'll get some minutes down the line, though, Dallas will be in plenty of blowouts where they can throw Ager out there and see what he can do. I like him a lot--incredible athlete, good shooter, good ballhandler, gets to the basket, decent defender. He won't be a factor on this year's team, but I like his chances of turning into a solid rotation guy a couple of years out.