Sportaholic: The Association shows us what we missed in first two days of action

For those who missed it (If you could with the wall to wall ESPN coverage) the NBA is back with a vengeance. In two days of action we have already witnessed a Kevin Garnet throat shove, Lebron James and Dwayne Wade looking like Jordan and Pippen 2.0, a Derrick Rose game winner, Chris Paul take over in the 4^th for the Clips,Mr. former Mr. Kardashian himself Kris Humphries drop a 21 point 14 rebound game, and Dwight Howard make up a song about his on again off again trade rumors.  And that’s just half the story. I didn’t know what to expect as a writer and fan when the NBA finally got over themselves and stopped the madness. From “Witnessing” Lebron show up at his alma mater’s varsity football practice, players moving overseas, Delonte West working at The Home Depot, and Kevin Durant do a little bit of everything made me think these guys wouldn’t be ready come when the lockout ended. Just didn’t seem like the focus was on getting better with all of the additional free time they had.

I was as wrong as I could I could be especially about the King himself. James and the Miami Heat look as if they could beat the ’96 Chicago Bulls with their aggressive defense and spectacular fast break offense.  Lebron and Dwayne Wade combined for 63 points 18 rebounds and 12 assists and just continually got in the lane to punish the Mavericks (0-2 now after losing to Denver tonight). The Mavs look to have the dreaded “Championship Hangover” as they have looked old, slow and discombobulated to start the season. Some of that is to be expected when you add veteran players such as Lamar Odom and Vince Carter but the effort just didn’t seem there. The Los Angeles Lakers are clearly a different team under new Head Coach Mike Brown. They are much more post oriented in their offense and will use a lot of screens to open up their 3-point shooters. All that being said the ball still ended up in Kobe’s hands in crunch time and that old bugaboo of them not being able to defend small quick point guards rang true. Derrick Rose absolutely left Derek Fisher stuck to the ground and floated a leathery soft floater over Pau Gasol (Don’t get me started on him) to finish off a sensational 22-point 8-assit game. The Bulls showed they will be able to match superior offensive teams by adding Richard Hamilton (Can anyone tell me why he still wears the face guard mask?)

Carmelo deserves a big mention as well with his 20-point 2^nd half outburst. "Most importantly for us, as a new team, we showed something," Anthony said. "We came together as a team. Even when we got down, there wasn't no frowns. Nobody was down. Mentally everybody was still up about it, and we willed our way to this win." The Knicks have the look of a team that can make a run but the injury of Rook Iman Shumpert going down with a MCL sprain hurts them at a position that they are already thin at. They still can score on you at will wit Melo, Amar’e Stoudemire, and a cast of talented role players. But the most important development for them was the shot blocking by newly acquired center Tyson Chandler. He obliterated 6 shots and showed that as long as he is around New York won’t be pushovers in the paint.

Lastly I can see why Dwight Howard will be traded or leave in the off season if he isn’t The Magic don’t have even half the talent around him to sniff an NBA championship.  Not when you wing player rotation consists of Jason Richardson (1 of 10), Hedo Turkoglu (3 of 10) and J.J Redick (0-3). They would have to pull off some kind of miraculous trade that they don’t have the money to do thanks to a couple of bloated contracts. The Lakers should smell blood in the water soon with Howard’s first choice New Jersey having to deal with Brooke Lopez breaking his foot.  One way or another the writing is on the wall for that situation even if Howard wants to make up little Christmas carols about it.

It was just a damn good way to start off the season after all of the bitterness that ensued during the lockout. The marquee players that we all expect to performed pretty much did that on the first two nights of the season.  Things can only get better from here and it looks like the NBA is ready to make up for dragging us into a shortened season with exceptional play all throughout it. 

The Weekend Run-down April 18, 2011

NBA Playoffs Opening Acts – After one of the most exciting and entreating NBA seasons in history, the NBA showcased what might be the best ever playoffs as well. The post season opened with three stunning first game upsets (Grizzlies over Spurs, Hornets over Lakers and Hawks over Magic) to get things started. The stars showed up as Chris Paul went off for a ridiculous 33 points, 7 rebounds, 14 assists and 3 steals in the Hornets big victory of the Lakers. Chicago’s Derrick Rose continued his MVP campaign as he would not let the Bulls lose scoring 39 points and controlling the last part of the game with his unstoppable moves against Indiana. Not be outdone, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant poured in 41 points in the Thunder’s victory of the Denver Nuggets. The most disturbing big time performance has to go to Orlando’s Dwight Howard. The big man was in beast mode as he scored 46 points and collected 19 boards. There is no way that your best player puts up those kinds of numbers and his team still loses by double digits. Someone needs to put out an APB for the rest of Orlando’s starters not named Dwight Howard or Jameer Nelson. Boston was down most of the game against the New York Knicks but was saved by Ray Allen as he hit the game winning 3-pointer in the waning moments of game 1 of this renewed rivalry. I can’t remember a better opening act to the NBA playoffs than this one. There wasn’t a bad game out of the bunch and it is just the beginning.

Predators take a 2-1 series lead over Ducks: Smashville came out in full support of its Nashville Predators as a raucous sell-out crowd of 17,113 flooded Bridgestone Arena to see the Preds defeat the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 4-3. The Preds capitalized on the suspension of Anaheim’s Bobby Ryan out shooting the Ducks 37-16. Mike Fisher gave the Preds the lead for good as he scored at the 10:21 mark in the third period. Nashville’s prime-time players showed up as Captain Shea Webber scored a goal (His seventh goal tying the Nashville’s Predators all-time mark), Martin Erat had a power-play goal and an assist. David Legwand and Jordin Tootoo also scored. Ryan Suter had two assists. The Predators could not let this opportunity pass as Anaheim’s second leader scorer Ryann was suspended for stomping defensemen Jonathon Blum’s foot in Friday’s game. The Predators look to take a commanding 3-1 lead this Wednesday at Bridgestone Arena. The Preds have all the momentum and hopefully are on their way to winning their first ever playoff series.

Jimmie Johnson wins closest race ever at Talladega: It was a two man race the whole way and almost at the finish line. The five-time defending Sprint cup champ held on to the victory over Clint Bowyer by two-thousandths of a second with a little help from Dale Earnhardt Jr. Little E played good teammate and help catapult Johnson to victory. Saying Junior sacrificed is an understatement, as he carries a 101 race winless streak and also the burden of being the most popular Sprint cup driver. If I couldn't win the race,'' Junior said, "I wanted Jimmie to win the race, because I had worked with him all day and he is my teammate.'' This was the closet victory ever in a Sprint cup race as it tied Ricky Craven’s win at Darlington in 2003. Earnhardt Jr. would still end up in fourth place as the top eight drives were separated by a mere 0.145 seconds. Talladega will always be good for paint swapping as there were twenty-six leaders and the lead car changed a whopping 88 times, tying the record from last year’s race. Johnson made sure to give Earnhardt his due by giving him the checkered flag but initially Earnhardt was reluctant to accept. "He said it belonged to me, but I don't agree with that," Earnhardt said after his fourth-place finish. "I appreciate it. I'll get him to sign it and it'll be one checkered flag that ain't mine."