FREE THROW FEST

There were 97 free throw attempts in the Lakers-Cavs game tonight. No, it didn't go into octuple overtime, just your regular 48 minute game. There were 61 fouls, which works out to 1 foul for every 47 seconds of playing time. Now I like a tighly called game, but that's just ridiculous.

It wasn't the reason the Lakers lost--that would be Lebron waking up from his month-long slumber and looking like the old active/spectacular Lebron (seriously, it was night and day watching how hyped up he was, the combo of being in the big city, on national TV with no other competing games, and going up against Kobe. 9 times out of 10, when he caught the ball he immediately when into an aggressive move toward the rim. It really confirms what I've been saying the last few weeks about him laying down on the job. It's not that he *can't* do it, he just chooses not to on more nights than most other superstars.)

The bizarre calls were pretty even both ways; some of the calls the Lakers got, I was just shaking my head in wonder. And then uber-scrub Eric Snow would bash into Kobe completely out of control and go to the line and I'd also shake my head in wonder--while letting out a string of profanity. I wonder when was the last time Eric Snow had double digit FTAs--not in this millenium, I'll bet. Possibly not in this lifetime.

That makes 5 straight losses for the Lakers, officially moving them out of the ranks of the lesser championship contenders. They'll be a lot better once Luke Walton and especially Kwame come back--playing Turiaf at center is just disastrous, as his game-costing inability to rebound a fucking missed free throw in the last 10 seconds showed--but they just can't hang with the West's top teams. They played over their heads earlier in the year, they're underachieving now, the reality is somewhere in the middle--48-52 win team that gets bounced in the first or second round of the playoffs.

2009, baby!

Back to the officiating--it's funny how refs will get. You can see a crew call a game *super tight*, blowing the whistle on virtually every drive to the basket, and then the next night the very same crew will call a game normally, or even very loose. Now sometimes a crew sees that a game is getting "chippy", as the announcer will inevitably say, and tighten up to make sure the game doesn't get out of hand, but that's not what I'm talking about. I mean that they'll just literally change their standards of what constitutes a foul from game to game--I mean, it's so clearly true, I think NBA officials would even generally agree with that observation. And they'll change those standards to a *wild* degree. Sometimes you go to the rim, get utterly hacked, and can't buy a call, the next night nobody's allowed to look in your direction (for Bird and Jordan, that was "every night").

That's what frustrates people about NBA officiating. It's a hard gig, no doubt, but there's no excuse for the lack of consistency with these assclowns. Decide what level of contact constitutes a foul and call it that way *every single game*. There can be variations from call-to-call--it would be impossible for there not to be--but not game-to-game variations in the fucking philosophy behind your officiating.

ALL-STAR WEEKEND

I guess I'm the only person left who gets excited about the dunk and 3-point contest. I'm not sure what other lame shit they have planned; I guess the rookie-sophomore game is tonight, that can be occasionally entertaining. I'd guess the sophs (with Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Monta Ellis, Danny Granger, Andrew Bynum, etc.) would roll over the crappy rookie class (Brandon Roy, Adam Morrison, Andrea Bargnani, Rudy Gay, etc.), but let's be honest, these guys are young, rich and in Las Vegas, they couldn't possibly give less of a shit about this game. And neither do I, really--these kinds of games are only fun to watch when the court is populated with super-athletes doing crazy stuff. The soph class is very good, but not really many Wades or Lebrons. I mean, nobody wants to see Deron Williams and Danny Granger run a perfectly executed pick-and-roll, or Chris Paul use a screen to set up a clean foul-line jumper. Ellis will probably shine, he's a great open court player. Maybe Randy Foye will show he can hoop a little.

D-LEAGUE

There's a D-League all-star game on Saturday night (only on the NBA Network, I believe (I realize I'm the laziest blogger around. I'm not going to do anything about it, but I think it's fair to acknowledge it)). That might be pretty interesting. It'd be better if Amir Johnson were in it, but the Pistons inexplicably called him up to let him rot on the bench instead of getting PT at a surprisingly solid level of play in the D-League. I don't know, maybe they feel a player gets way better coaching in the majors.

Anyway, there are some names you might recognize from college ball in the game--Loren Woods, BJ Elder, Luke Schenscher, Alan Anderson, Randy Livingston (yup, still hanging around trying to snag the last spot on an NBA bench; you gotta admire the hell out of this guy for his persistence), Dijon Thompson, Rick Rickert, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, and Peter John Ramos from the Puerto Rican national team that always gives us fits. I don't know, I'll give it a look and see if it's any good.

DUNK CONTEST

Man, there are a lot of dunkers I'd rather see than Nate Robinson. But he's got something to prove after last year's complete debacle, I guess we'll see what he's got. He ain't having the title handed over to him on the "aww, he's so little, isn't that cute!" criteria *this* year, not with MJ, Nique, Dr. J, Vince and Kobe as the judges (I think I speak for everyone when I say I'd much rather see a dunk contest with *those* guys. I'll bet the Doctor can still throw down).

Gerald Green supposedly has some crazy shit planned, I'm pretty excited about that. He's a freak show with top 1% athleticism in the league. Fellow freak Tyrus Thomas will probably come strong after getting ripped apart for his comments (he said something along the lines of not giving a shit about the dunk contest and only planning to show up to get the "free money"). Dwight Howard is kinda interesting. He's obviously powerful as hell, but that's not what this is about--you have to get up high enough to do in-air acrobatics, and most big men don't have the hang time to do that. Shawn Kemp (pre-obesity) is the only real exception I can think of--we'll see if the Man-Child can hang in Kemp's class.

THREE POINT SHOOTOUT

This should be pretty cool, there's a lot of talent here--Nowitzki, Arenas, Mike Miller, Jason Kapono, Damon Jones (they gotta mike him) and Jason Terry. If Arenas and Nowitzki get hot, it could be an all-timer. But Miller's got the sweetest release in the game and Kapono's shooting an absurd .560 (on 3+ attempts per game!) from three this year. Still, the guys with the experience and the quick releases usually win it. Arenas has been off the last couple weeks, so I'll go with Nowitzki.

THE GAME

I love the all-star game. And it's not like it was back in the 70s-80s-90s--they still don't play any D in the first half, but it usually tightens up a bit in the second and you see some legitimately good basketball in addition to all the highlight reel stuff. Nash and Iverson are out, which sucks--PGs make the game--but you still have Kidd and Billups along with table setters Wade, Lebron, Kobe, T-Mac, Arenas and Joe Johnson, there should be plenty of fine ballhandling and passing going on. And you have plenty of high-flying finishers in Dwight Howard, Shawn Marion, Caron Butler, Vince and Amare. With an amped-up Las Vegas crowd, it'll be a lot of fun to watch.

DISTURBING OBSERVATIONS FROM LAKERS-CAVS

So I watched the hideously ugly Lakers-Cavs game today, and came away with the following thoughts:

1. Lebron still looks like he's out and out throwing games. He must lead the league in fall-away jumpers by a hundred. I love when announcers talk about his 'unselfisheness'. Pfffffft--he's the most selfish fucking player in the league. So he throws a couple sweet passes, BFD. That's not what unselfishness is. You know what's selfish? Popping a bunch of gay fall-away jumpers--which is easy--and not taking the ball to the basket--which is hard. Especially when you're a terrible shooter, like James. Those fall-away jumpers are 20-25% shots at best, the opponent will let him take those shots *all fucking day*. And he does.

If Mike Brown weren't about thirty seconds from getting his ass canned, he'd be benching Lebron right now--the team clearly played better without him today. If I were Brown, I'd go down swinging; tell James (and the media) that he's coming out of the game if he's shooting jumpers, period. And stick with it. If you get fired, you get fired. Hey, you're getting fired anyway if James doesn't get with the program and the team gets bounced in the first round of the playoffs. Fucking call his ass out. Learn from Phil Jackson here; when Kobe and Shaq were going through funks like this, Jackson basically went out to the media and questioned their willingness to win, their work ethic, often their very manhood. It seems childish--but it worked! Especially with Shaq, you could always count on that fire getting lit underneath him and the big fella coming out and wreaking havoc on the entire league for the next two weeks.

Even Dwyane Wade is criticizing James now, saying James lacks "that pep in his step", and that "he isn't all there". Wow. I mean, when's the last time you heard of a player in the league calling out another player like that?! Wade's basically saying LBJ is sleepwalking through games--which everyone in the league knows but somehow isn't being reported in the media.

I love how sports fans save their rage for guys who--gasp!--talk a little shit, and guys who--gasp!--throw a punch in the heat of battle, and give a pass to pieces of crap like LBJ and Vince before him who coast through games and basically steal money from the organization and its fans. What James is doing right now is 1000 times more offensive to me as a sports fan than what Carmelo Anthony did (I guess it's actually an infinite times more offensive to me, since my level of offendedness at a guy throwing a single punch is zero--big goddamn deal).

So the question is, is James just really in a funk that he'll break out of, is he mentally and physically drained (i.e., 'being a pussy') and will grow out of it in a few years with added maturity and a better work ethic, or is this a sign of things to come, like with Vince? I don't know, man. I know it seems pretty crazy to pass this harsh a judgment on a 22-year-old, but I know how people are--you could see the drive with MJ, Kobe, Iverson, KG, Wade from day one. I just don't see James having that. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's still an awesome player and will probably end his career as a HOF lock--but when it comes to measuring up against the greatest of the greats, well, you don't get to just coast on your physical talent and be mentioned in that group. I don't know, maybe he'll end up being a guy like Shaq, immature and unfocused most of the time, coasting through the regular season--but turning it on in a big way once the playoffs roll around. I guess we'll see. All I know is that right now, he's a shell of the player he was the last couple of years, and nowhere even close to an MVP candidate.

2. The more disturbing observation is that, even with everything in #1 being true in spades today, the Cavs still beat the Lakers, putting them at 3-5 on a hugely underwhelming road trip that they spent mostly down double digits to crap-ass teams.

Kobe's kinda reverting back to 'stupid Kobe'--not as much with the bad shots, but making a lot of idiotic decisions with the ball. He must have tried to split the double team against the Pistons 15 times--and lost the ball 10 of them. Hey, if you're not getting the call, then *stop doing it*, how hard is that? The guy just ain't bright, it's really as simple as that. When you start with that premise, all of Kobe's flaws become pretty easy to understand--he's just a very dumb guy.

But I can understand him wanting to try to take over the game more, since his supporting cast has been dropping a collective pantload for the last couple of weeks. Lamar Odom is a turnover machine--and is probably second in the league to James in 'dumbass fall-away jumpers that have no shot in hell of falling'. He's just been awful; like the Cavs with James today, the Lakers were better when Odom was on the bench--no hyperbole, both teams played noticeably better with James/Odom on the bench. Odom took 6 threes today. 6 threes from a 33% shooter should never happen. Again, if I were Phil, I'd tell him to literally *never take a three*--and if he did, he was getting his ass benched. Odom is a great player when he's taking the ball to the basket, utterly useless when he's not. I don't know why a coach has to force pussies like Odom and LBJ to do what they're good at (well, actually I do know--because it's hard), but it's pretty clear that they have to. If you let them do what they *want* to do, be prepared to watch a bunch of bricks get tossed up from the perimeter. And watch a bunch of Ls pile up.

Andrew Bynum is hitting the wall in a big way, he's disappeared completely in the last week. 29 minutes and 2 boards today, I don't even know how that happens. Maurice Evans is second only to Josh Smith in "most astonishingly athletic moves to the basket without finishing". Hey, it's real great that you're *so* quick and can jump *so* high--now put the goddamn ball in the basket. A guy like Joe Johnson could never *dream* of having Evans' athleticism, but he knows how to put the goddamn ball in the basket once he gets there.

Speaking of guys who toss up a bunch of prayers, Smush Parker is shooting 5 threes a game in February games and is hitting 28% of them. He has absolutely no business taking that many threes. Yes, you're wide open--why exactly do you think that is? Brainstorm with me, why does it seem like no one ever guards you beyond the three point line?

Now we're finding out Kwame is out until (six weeks after they said he'd be back) and Walton is out until (3 weeks after they said he'd be back)--christ, even the training staff is dropping the ball now. I've seen a lot of sprained ankles, but how many of them take two fucking months to come back from? Are you sure you don't need to amputate? Neither of these guys is great, but they play crucial roles on this team. The half court offense has been stagnant with Walton out (and Odom smoking pot before every game), and you need to have a backup center on your roster when your starter is 19. I mean, even old man Ilgauskas was riping up Ronny Turiaf. Christ, if James wasn't such a giant pussy, you could probably put *him* in at center against Turiaf, they're practically the same size.

I'm still on board with the 'championship in 2009!" idea, and I think they'll be a lot better once everyone gets healthy--but man, this has been just a brutal stretch of shitty basketball. Like the Cavs, it's pretty clear they're just not even remotely close to the real championship contenders this year. But the Lakers have Andrew Bynum as (*potentially*) a big giant light at the end of the tunnel--the Cavs's roster for the next 2-3 years is set, and they're only going as far as James takes them. And right now, that looks like *maybe* the second round.

ALL-STAR TEAMS

I can't believe the NBA All-Star Game--one of the 5 best sporting events of the year--is in Las Vegas and I won't be there because of goddamn work commitments. I gotta find another job.

Seriously, even if you didn't have a ticket for the game or any of the events, it'd be worth it just to check out all the characters in town for the weekend. I can picture a vast rainbow of suits--orange, purple, red--and all the real hookers fighting for floor space in the clubs with the amateur sluts just up from LA for the weekend. I guarantee that if you were there, you'd see at least 30 things you've never before seen in your life and never will again. And Zach Randolph would be prominently involved in 20 of them.

OK, on to the teams.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Starters
G Dwyane Wade
G Gilbert Arenas
F Lebron James
F Chris Bosh
C Jermaine O'Neal

The top three guys are pretty obvious--even if Lebron's game is falling off a cliff lately--and Bosh is far and away the best big man in the east, but the center position was tough. It looked early on like Dwight Howard was ready to join the ranks of the superstar elite, but he and Orlando have taken a nosedive over the last month or so. Indiana has a better record (despite playing a higher percentage of their games on the road) and O'Neal is just a better player than Howard on both ends.

(Just another word about Bosh: Since coming back from injury, he's averaging 26 & 9 in 18 games, and the Raptors are 13-5 over that span. This guy's coming on in a big way.)

Reserves
Chauncey Billups
Joe Johnson
Vince Carter
Caron Butler
Dwight Howard
Michael Redd
Ben Gordon

Injury replacement for Redd: Emeka Okafor

I know, I know, where's Rip Hamilton? Well, in the mighty mouse conference, they have lots of good guards and very few big forwards and centers--so an Emeka Okafor gets on the roster over Hamilton. You can't have Caron Butler trying to d-up Amare, that's not going to work. It's an all-star *team*, not just a ranking of the best players in the conference.

So why Ben Gordon over Hamilton? Look, I love Rip Hamilton, he's one of my favorite players in the league. And it's really, really close, they're both fantastic offensive players. But ask around the league which guy a team would less rather face, it's Ben Gordon. Hamilton has made the most out of his game you could possibly ask for, but he's still essentially a jump shooter who can't hit the three. He's done a great job being more aggressive in putting the ball on the floor, and his FTAs are way up as a result--but Gordon's a creator, a one-man offense, a guy who can absolutely take over a game on his own. Rip can do that too, sometimes, but Gordon does it like every other night.

A couple other notes--

This is entirely based on merit. If I were voting with the goal of having the best game possible, I'd absolutely have Jason Kidd on the team--great passing PGs are what makes the all-star game fun to watch, like the 80s glory days of Isiah vs. Magic, some of the most enjoyable-to-watch basketball ever played. But look, the Nets, with Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson (who played in 2/3rds of the team's games), are 23-27. In the East. Even without Krstic, that's pathetic. I'm not giving this team 2 all-stars. Vince should be on there because, well, it's hard to leave off a 25/6/4 guy--but if Kidd is the leader of this crew, he's gotta be accountable for their awful start.

I actually considered putting Eddy Curry on here instead of Okafor, he's been just a fantastic offensive player since a few weeks into the season. You can pretty much count on him for 22 a night on .600+ shooting. But he still doesn't rebound, and he's still a dreadful defensive player on a team that should be better than it is. Okafor's a 15 & 11 guy and a total defensive force on a suddenly resurgent Bobcats team (wait--can you be 'resurgent' if you were never 'surgent' in the first place? Make it "on the suddenly not-horrific Bobcats team"). I also considered Rasheed, who's more valuable than his stats would suggest.

My (rather arbitrary) injury policy is that a guy has to play in like 60% of his team's games--so yes on Redd, Billups & Bosh, no on Shaq & Pierce.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Starters
G: Steve Nash
G: Kobe Bryant
F: Dirk Nowitzki
F: Amare Stoudemire
C: Tim Duncan

(Note: Yao fails the "60% test")

The only question mark here is Amare, but I put him on over Boozer, Garnett, Randolph and Brand because he makes Phoenix so much better on both ends. Amare's coming off a 4-game stretch against Utah, San Antonio, at Denver and at Portland where he averaged 31 & 14 on 62% shooting.

I also thought about throwing Tracy McGrady in there at the other forward spot--what he's been doing with Houston since Yao went down is incredible. The team was 16-11 when Yao got hurt and 40-year-old Dikembe Mutombo took over at center; since then, they're 15-6 and are just a half game behind Utah and 1.5 games behind San Antonio for the #3 spot in the West. McGrady is averaging just under 30 & 7 during those 21 games.

Reserves
Tracy McGrady
Carlos Boozer
Kevin Garnett
Allen Iverson
Shawn Marion
Carmelo Anthony
Chris Paul

Boozer injury replacement: Elton Brand

Man, there are some tough omissions here: Tony Parker, Ray Allen, Zach Randolph, Josh Howard, Deron Williams, Baron Davis, etc.

I think the toughest decision is Chris Paul over Tony Parker. Paul missed 1/3rd of the season with injury and Parker's the second best player on one of the best teams in the league. But it comes down to this--New Orleans has almost no supporting talent, but they're a plus-.500 team when Paul plays; that would make them a playoff team in an absolutely *stacked* conference. Plus Paul is just better. Parker's a great scorer, one of the all time small-man finishers in NBA history. He's putting up 19 a game on ridiculous .529 shooting. But Paul is scoring almost as much and is also one of the 2-3 best ballhandling/passing point guards in the league on top of it--for the season he's averaging 8.6 assists per game against only 2.8 turnovers, a better than 3:1 ratio. And Paul is also a better defensive guard--although Parker's underrated in that area. Tough call, but I'm going with the guy who's the leader of his team and the main focus of the opponent's defensive gameplan.

All of this goes for Deron Williams too--he's a damn good player, but Paul is just a little bit better, and doesn't have the advantage of playing with other great players the way Parker and Williams do.

Leaving Ray Allen off was tough too, he's having a monster year. But if you're going to go with the scoring guard, it has to be Iverson. Things have been rocky in Denver, but Seattle's one of the worst teams in the league (admittely injuries have played a part there). Iverson is scoring just as much as Allen since he got to Denver, and he's even put up a better shooting percentage--add in his 8 assists per game and superior (if overrated) defense, and he gets the nod.

I gave Garnett, Boozer and Brand the PF slots over Zach Randolph because as good as he's been this year, Randolph is still a one-dimensional player. But Portland has been surprisingly not-atrocious this year, and especially lately they've played some good teams pretty tough. Randolph is having a fantastic season, he just barely misses the cut at a position where the Western Conference is completely loaded.

And lastly, we come to Josh Howard. I love Josh Howard, I think he's an incredibly valuable player on both ends. He slashes to the basket, he shoots the three, he rebounds, he gets steals and blocks--he's like the poor man's Shawn Marion. But who are you going to put him on over?McGrady? Garnett? The average-wealth-man's Shawn Marion--Shawn Marion? I don't see it. Josh Howard has turned into a great player but he's not on these guys' level quite yet.

FRIDAY THOUGHTS

TORONTO

Toronto closed out a strong January with a double digit win over the Wiz, putting them at 10-5 for the month and 23-23 on the year--the only team in the Atlantic Division at .500.

Since Chris Bosh returned from injury, he's averaging 25 & 9 in 15 games in his march to superstardom. His performance in that Wizards game showed how dominant he can be--and why the Wizards, although fun to watch, aren't even remotely close to being a championship contender. Big Chris went for 34 & 8 and made 15 straight shots at one point. You can't blame this one on Antawn Jamison's matador defense, this game came after Jamison's injury (which will put him out somewhere between 2 and 8 weeks...WTF? Maybe you should cover all your bases and say he could come back any time between four minutes from now and 2010). Bosh is just unstoppable on the box against anyone, a great combination of size, power, quickness, footwork, hands, and a beautiful touch around the basket. Interesting side note: Bosh is 10-26 in threes this year, good for 38.5%. (But you kinda hope he never develops into a real threat from there; the last thing you want from your dominant post scorer is for him to turn into Rasheed Wallace and jack up 5 threes a game when he should be pounding down low).

Another guy playing well in Toronto is Jose Calderon, the 25-year-old point guard out of Spain. In the 8 games he started in place of injured TJ Ford, Calderon has averaged 14/2.8/8.6 against only 2.1 turnovers. He's not a great outside shooter, surprising for a Euro, but he's a great penetrator and ballhandler and really makes things happen for this offense. A great guy to have coming off the bench.

ORLANDO

I've had a couple people ask about Orlando, but I don't have many answers. Well, I have one--Brian Hill. Why pro sports teams keep recycling these proven losers (like Dallas with Norv fucking Turner?!) is beyond me. Yes, Brian Hill once won with Shaquille O'Neal and Afernee Hardaway. You know what other coaches could win with a young Shaq and Penny? ALL OF THEM. He had plenty of chances after that and never won shit. But instead of taking a chance on a young, energetic coach--Avery Johnson seems to be working out pretty well--some of these teams just go with the tried and untrue. They'd rather have a proven loser than the unknown, I just don't get it.

So we have Orlando--possibly the most talented team in the East--floundering at 24-22. And it's even worse than it looks, since they've played 27 of those 46 games in conference; what's going to happen when they have to run the gamut against the Western powerhouses? This team's a mess.

I'm not saying this is the specific reason, but I always hate teams that play those 10-man rotations where everyone gets 20-30 minutes. Orlando doesn't play an aggressive, attacking, uptempo style (quite the opposite, really), so it's not like guys are just playing their asses off for 5 minute stretches and then needing a rest. So it's more like substituting for substituting's sake. Well, look at it this way. Either Jameer Nelson or Carlos Arroyo is the better player. Whichever one you think it is (Nelson), someone's better--so every minute the better guy is on the bench (and not because he's in dire need of rest), your team is worse off. Now that's obviously a generalization, sometimes you substitute because the bench player matches up better against a particular team than the starter; that's not what I'm talking about here. You don't owe anything to Carlos Arroyo--you use him when it makes sense to use him. But Hill comes into a game thinking he *has* to get Arroyo his 20-25 minutes, no matter what. Well, sometimes that means you're playing him 10-15 minutes a game where your team is worse off for it. It makes no sense. But then neither does the fact that Hill's in the league at all.

QUICK HITTERS

Houston continues to play well without Yao, going 7-3 in their last 10 and pushing their record to 29-16 overall, 1.5 games ahead of the Lakers for that all important 5 seed (which means you get to play Utah instead of San Antonio). Very impressive job by Jeff Van Gundy, he's the Coach of the Year in a walk right now. Also it's nice to see T-Mac come alive, I'd almost forgotten how good he is when completely healthy. In 13 January games, he averaged a shade under 30 along with 6 boards and 7 assists, shot .472 from the floor, and turned the ball over only 2.5 times per game. Nice fill-in work too by Mutumbo (who I talked about last week) and Juwan Howard (averaged 15/6/2 in Jan).

Rocky start to the AI-Melo era in Denver, they lost 3 straight after winning their first 2, including a couple embarassing home losses to the Bobcats and Jefferson-less Nets. Then they lost on the road to Portland, a team they should easily beat even without Iverson (he had a sprained ankle & is expected back shortly). The biggest problem has been Carmelo, he's been very rusty since coming back from suspension--in the 6 games since he's been back, he's shot 50% once and was under in the other 5. The Nuggets are currently tied for the #7 playoff spot with a surging Clippers (7-3 in their last ten), just a game ahead of the hard-battling Timberwolves (led by Garnett's 25/13/4 averages in December).

Speaking of surging teams--well, surging for them--the Bobcats have gone 8-5 in their last 13 games, with wins at Detroit, at Denver and at LA Lakers. Gerald Wallace in particular has been on a tear; in 8 January games after getting back from injury, Wallace is averaging 23/9/3 with 2 steals and a block, and shooting .546 from the floor. He's a tough matchup, a guy who can overpower your shooting guard (like he does with Kobe), and blow past your bigger forwards (like he does with Luke Walton).

Advice for fantasy players--if Paul Millsap is available in your league, jump on him. Boozer is out at least a month, and Millsap is extremely productive when he gets minutes. He scores (with a huge FG%), he rebounds, he gets blocks and steals. In the first 3 games without Boozer, he's averaged 15 & 12 with a steal and 2 blocks per.

NEXT WEEK: ALL-STAR TEAMS