Wednesday Night Lights

Quick note: Ghost of Jim Murray, I agree with pretty much everything you said--which makes your comments wise and insightful--with the exception of the Knicks win total. I agree they'll be better this year, I agree that the additions of Jeffries and Balkman will help, but I still don't see them doing much better than .500, even in their crappy division & conference. I think they have a lot of talent, but it's a weird collection of players, I'm not sure if it'll all fit. I'll say one thing--if they win 48 games, I will completely revise my opinion of Isiah's coaching ability, because this ain't the easiest team in the world to coach.

My opinion of his ability as a GM is unlikely to change.


Lakers

Another day, another impressive victory. OK, it was Golden State, but (a) it was on the road, (b) it was one of the 7 games this year Baron Davis will be at 100%, and (c) the Lakers are still missing The Franchise & their starting big men. Taken together, that makes for a very impressive performance.

As with the opener, the scrubs came through with flying colors. Instead of Andrew Bynum (who still had decent production in very limited minutes due to foul trouble), it was Ronny Turiaf going for 23-9-3 and a couple steals & blocks. To say that was out of left field is an understatement--those numbers are probably more than he's had in any three previous games combined. I mean, he's an active player and everything, but he was sensational last night, going for 14 in the 3rd period alone when the Lakers blew the game wide open.

Odom was brilliant once again, with 22-9-9, and the rookie Farmar played 24 strong minutes, ending with a solid 9 & 4.

This is an exciting team. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself here, but these young guys are showing a lot of promise. It'll be interesting to see if they can keep this dynamic going when Kobe comes back and starts launching 35 shots a night. I don't know---maybe Kobe had a religious awakening in the playoffs last year and now understands he has to be more of a facilitator for this team to win. I hope so.

Golden State

On the other side, I was impressed with Baron Davis, even though he had a bad night shooting the ball. You forget how ridiculously athletic the guy is until you see him at 100%. If he can stay healthy--huge if, obviously--and they get something out of Dunleavy, Murphy & Pietrus (you know J-Rich will get his 22-6-3 every night), I think they can potentially compete for that #8 playoff spot.

I also love Monta Ellis. He showed some serious flashes of potential las year, and from the game last night, it appears that he's way ahead of schedule. He went for 22 in 22 minutes, on 7-10 shooting. He can't do much else but score right now, but he can do that in spades. Looks like the Warriors might have found themselves another great second round pick--hopefully this will turn out better for them than the Gilbert Arenas situation.

Clippers

A bit of a disappointing start to the season, but you knew Phoenix would be up in their home opener after losing the previous night.

As predicted, Livingston is the starter at PG and getting big minutes. He generally shot the ball poorly, but did knock down a couple threes, a great sign. Only 3 assists, but the Clippers missed a lot of open shots that cost him assists. They were posting up Livingston against the Warriors' smaller guards and a lot of good things happened--but Livingston has to finish off those good moves, and the Clippers' shooters have to knock down their shots.

The Clippers started Brand at center and had Kaman come off the bench to better match up with the smaller Suns, but I personally feel like that plays right into their hands. If you have a size advantage, why not use it? Sure, Kaman can't guard Boris Diaw, but we saw in the playoffs last year that Diaw sure as hell can't defend Kaman or keep him off the boards. Why do exactly what Phoenix wants you to do?

Corey Maggette only played 6 minutes due to a bout of food poisoning.

Suns

On the Suns side, Nash and Marion were back to their usual awesome selves. Amare looked great too, playing 24 minutes and collecting 15 & 4 with 2 blocks. Most of that came in the first half, he slowed down a bit in the second. Still, he looked a lot like his old active and explosive self for solid stretches.

Barbosa came back to earth with 11 points, but also chipped in 7 boards and 4 assists--and the bit thing here is minutes; for the second game in a row, he got over 35 minutes of PT. If he gets minutes, he *will* put up great numbers.

Other Games

Indiana started a Harrington-Granger-O'Neal frontcourt, as expected. Jasikevicius hit for 20 & 5 in 21 minutes; he can really shoot the ball, but was streaky last year.

On the Hornets side, Gerald Wallace left the game early with a back injury after a hard foul, his status is up in the air.

Adam Morrison had decent numbers in his debut with 14-3-2. Still, he got almost all of that in the first half, and struggled from the field with 5-13 shooting. Emeka Okafor went for 19 & 13 with *6* blocks, but also shot poorly from the field, a disturbing trend with him. How does a 6'10 guy shoot 41% from the floor?

Orlando looked good, taking apart the Bulls by 15. Dwight Howard wreaked havoc on Ben Wallace & PJ Brown, going for 27 & 11. On the Bulls side, I really like this Thabo Sefolosha guy, he can fill it up--13 in 20 minutes on 5-7 shooting.

In Atlanta, Shelden Williams got the start at PF but did nothing with it. 0 points and 3 boards in 16 minutes as Philly rolled to a double digit victory.

Chris Paul got off to a fantastic start with 20/7/10 with just one turnover as New Orleans won their opener on the road. Peja struggled, but you know he'll get his shot going soon. Sczerbiak shot the ball poorly, but got 36 minutes, a good sign regarding his health.

New Jersey knocked off Toronto, with their big three--Vince, Kidd & Jefferson--doing most of the damage. Krstic had a solid 14 & 7 in just 23 minutes, and Marcus Williams looked healthy. He shot poorly, but had 7 & 3 with a surprising 8 boards.

King James took over down the stretch and led Cleveland to a nailbiter victory over Washington. He ended up with 26/10/5, and his running mate Larry Hughes had a huge first game with 27/9/5, 3 threes & no turnovers. That's a great sign for Cleveland, it's crucial for them that Hughes plays like a $10M/year player this season.

On the other side, Gilbert Arenas stunk up the joint with 2-12 shooting and 7 points, already matching the number of times he was under double figures last year with *one*. He did have 5 boards and 11 assists--the guy isn't *just* a gunner.

The Bucks came into Detroit and pulled off the upset behind Michael Redd's huge night--37 points on 14-22 shooting. Bogut had a nice game with 16/9/3. Charlie Villanueva put up 21 shots in 33 minutes, making only 6 and living up the nickname some of the Toronto people hung on him when he was there--little Antoine Walker. Still, he's a good player, he'll come around.

The Pistons struggled on offense, shooting just .431 for the game. Rip & Billups were solid with 20+ each, but Rasheed was awful, pulling a doughnut in 22 minutes. Nazr Mohammed played so-so, getting a solid 8 & 12 in 28 minutes, but he got outplayed by Bogut and fouled out of the game.

Minnesota beat Sacramento in a good barometer game for each of them. Kevin Martin got the start in Sacto and put up 23 & 5 in big minutes, a great start to the season. Artest shot a putrid 6-24; look for a lot more of those kinds of nights. Good player, but poor judgment--on and off the court.

Randy Foye only got 6 minutes; as expected, it looks like it'll be a rough start to the season for him, disappointing after all the summer league hype.

The Knicks pulled out a W over Memphis, but don't get too excited, Memphis is horrible without Gasol. Eddy Curry was huge with 41 minutes and 17 & 14 with 3 blocks. He produces if he gets (and can phsyically handle) the minutes. Quentin Richardson looked healthy and damned good, playing 56 minutes (!) and going for 31 on 10-13 shooting and 5-5 from three.

On the other side, Hakim Warrick got off to a nice start after a disappointing rookie season with 22 & 12 in 42 minutes. With Gasol out and Swift recovering from injury, minutes are there for the taking. Rudy Gay had 21 & 8, but shot a poor 8-21 from the floor. Probably many more games like that on the horizon. He did have an impressive 4 blocks though.

Portland started off the season with a bang; sure it was Seattle, but any road victory is a good sign for Portland. And an even better sign was Brandon Roy going for 20 on 10-16 shooting. It's obviously way early, but he's head and shoulders above everyone at this point as the favorite for rookie of the year. Zach Randolph also got off to a great start with 30 & 10 in 33 minutes.

As for Seattle, it's a bad sign when you get 20+ from Allen, Lewis & Ridnour, and 17 and 6 in just 23 minutes from Wilcox, and still lose to fucking *Portland*. They're not good.

And finally, Utah looked very impressive in knocking off Houston by 10, especially with Kirilenko doing almost nothing in 24 minutes (other than sabotaging my fantasy team). Boozer continued his strong play from the end of last year with 24 & 19, as did Deron Williams with 18 & 10 against only 2 turnovers. Utah is a solid team. Not spectacular, but solid. They could make a play for that #8 playoff spot this year.

As for Houston, it was a lot like last year--good production from McGrady and Ming ( but not enough), and not much in the way of a supporting cast. Battier didn't do much, but was saddled with foul trouble. Bonzi Wells and Juwan Howard were out, so they have hope. Also Kirk Snyder played a solid game with 13/3/3 in 31 minutes, he's not a bad player.