2/15/2012 Running Diary

7:12 pm [PHI @ ORL] No shock there as Orlando looks to get Dwight going early on. Richardson with a 3, he now has 5 of the Magic’s 7 points.

7:15 pm [PHI @ ORL] Man what a great story Lavoy Allen is. Just a random thought.. (P.S. Hell of a fast break defense there by Lavoy Allen)

7:19 pm [PHI @ ORL] Sixers are NOT defending the 3 point well. That’s usually a staple of their defense. Magic shooting 75% from downtown early. Out to a 15-6 lead.

7:20 pm [PHI @ ORL] That’s about as great a start as you could ask for if you’re a Magic fan. P.S. 10 minutes till LINsanity.

7:23 pm [PHI @ ORL] Very sloppy start for the 76ers as Orlando now has a 17 point lead late in the 1^st qtr. Meanwhile in the Spurs/Raptors game, RJ hits a 3 to put the Spurs up 8.

7:27 pm [SA @ TOR] Barbosa with no ill feelings towards his old rival, missing a 3. It’s just like old times!!

7:31 pm It’s time for LINSANITY! Also, I cannot get over announcers referring to Matt Bonner as the red rocket. Kills me every time.

7:33 pm [PHI @ ORL] Huge 3 by Lou Williams to close out the quarter allowing the Sixers to draw within 13 and weather an otherwise horrific quarter. 29-16 Magic at end of one.

7:34 pm [SA @ TOR] Spurs lead 25-17 at the end of the first quarter. It’s impossible to watch a basketball game on Toronto’s court. It’s hideously ugly.

7:39 pm [PHI @ ORL] Sixers, just as I had thought, are back in it, and have cut the lead to 8. Meanwhile the Spurs continue to pull away from the Canadians.

7:41 pm [DET @ BOS] Boston and Detroit are underway at the Garden.

7:41 pm [SAC @ NYK] Andddddd heeeerreeee weeee goooo. Linsanity at MSG. Whatcha got Kings?!

7:44 pm [SAC @ NYK] Lin! First basket of the game and it's an And1 for Jeremy Lin. Garden is fired up.

8:00 pm Couple things from the past 15 minutes: Demarcus Cousins looks a lot slimmer. He needs to learn how to finish better at the rim though. Lin literally had a play where he just ran around then hit a layup. Its like a playground for him out there. Kings are standing around watching Jeremy Lin early on. Leads to a 10-0 run for the Knicks. Kyrie Irving is carving up the Pacers defense in his return from his concussion.

8:07 pm [SAC @ NYK] Hey Tyson Chandler, shave your freaking beard. End of the 1st at the garden. Nothing stands out other than Knicks are hitting their shots (due in a large part to their superior ball movement thanks to Lin) and Kings are forced into taking tougher shots and are missing them.

8:13 pm [SAC @ NYK] The fans at the garden are booing Kings rookie PG Isaiah Thomas purely because of his name. STAY CLASSY, NEW YORK!

8:34 pm [PHI @ ORL] Sixers are chipping away at this lead. Now have it to 6 late in the 3rd qtr. Ryan Anderson is having a ridiculous game from behind the arc. Making a case that he's gonna win the 3-pt contest next weekend.

8:45 pm [SA @ TOR] Looking like Spurs will get this win. Do people realize they are making a run at the Thunder for best record out west?

8:52 pm [PHI @ ORL] It's a shame the Sixers didn't have Tony Battie available to defen---WAIT WHAT.

9:11 pm [IND @ CLE] Kyrie and co. are up 20 points on Indiana. This is a bad couple days for Indiana. Blown out by the Heat last night and now getting white-washed by a mediocre Cleveland team.

LINsane!

I stand by my feeling that he is vastly overrated and will not continue to do this in the long run, but I am certainly enjoying this as a basketball fan. This is awesome to watch on every level. I'm not a fan of the Knicks, nor am I fan of New York sports in general, but this city is a basketball city at heart and when the Knicks are relevant and have a guy that draws this much energy from the crowd, it's just flat out fun to watch.

Happy VaLINtines Day, all.

Kyrie Irving

I don't think people are paying proper attention to what Kyrie Irving is doing this season. Let's take a look at some of his numbers:

29.8 minutes per game

49.2% FG %

41.3% 3-pt FG %

83% FT Shooting

18 ppg

5.1 apg

3.5 rpg

0.8 spg

3.2 turnovers per game

PER 21.62 (Top 25 in the league)

The kid is 19 years old and putting up these numbers. He is doing it on a TERRIBLE Cavs team with limited talent surrounding him and has them hovering around the 8 seed (albeit in the awful eastern conference). Also you have to remember he largely didn't play basketball last year at Duke, as he was injured nearly the entire year. He isn't an all-star yet, but he's well on his way to being one. Those numbers aren't yet on par with a Chris Paul or a Derek Rose but he's certainly around the Tony Parker/Deron Williams zone. Again, I repeat, at 19 years old. To compare that to someone like Deron Williams in his rookie year, Kyrie is MILES ahead of him. In Williams rookie year ('05-'06) he finished 205th in PER. Kyrie is currently 25th. Deron had more talent around him on that team and has the same minutes per game that Kyrie is getting this year. He averaged:

10.8 ppg

4.5 apg

2.4 rpg

42% fg %

41% 3 pt fg %

1.8 turnovers per game

PER: 12.42

Kyrie out performs him in nearly every category, except turnovers per game. That's largely because Kyrie is asked to do far more for his team than Deron was asked to do for his. That also effects the PPG and APG difference between the two, but the PER tells the story.

Kyrie is doing something special this year and it's worth taking notice. He's actually made me tune into Cavs games to watch what he's doing.

NBA All-Star Reserves

Eastern Conference:

Guards: Deron Williams (NJ), Joe Johnson (ATL)

Forwards: Andre Iguodala (PHI), Paul Pierce (BOS), Luol Deng (CHI), Chris Bosh (MIA)

Center: Roy Hibbert (IND)

Western Conference:

Guards: Tony Parker (SA), Steve Nash (PHX), Russell Westbrook (OKC)

Forwards: Dirk Nowitzki (DAL), Kevin Love (MIN), Lamarcus Aldridge (POR)

Center: Marc Gasol (MEM)

How the hell did _____ not make it?!

This spot is usually a glaring hole, but I don't see anyone vehemently screaming their lungs out. New York fans will scream for Amar'e, Los Angeles fans will scream for Pau Gasol, and Boston fans will scream for Rajon Rondo. Two guys come to mind for me. One, Tyson Chandler. I was surprised Hibbert made it over him, but there's no room for both and I have no real issue with Hibbert over him. Seems like a coin flip that I thought Chandler would win based on his name. The other guy that comes to mind for me is Paul Millsap. Utah is supposed to rebuilding, yet they are above .500, in the playoff hunt, and doing so in the toughest division in basketball. He doesn't have the big name, but he's the reason Utah felt confident letting Boozer go and he's the reason they are playing so well right now and he's done so with very little help from the PG position. He's in the top-15 in PER and is having a career year.

I can see how he didn't make it, but ____ will definitely be there next year!

Brandon Jennings takes this one. The kid is 22 years old and he's leading Milwaukee in ppg (19.1) while dishing out nearly 6 apg. He's become the clear star on that team and even when Bogut returns, he will maintain that spot. Despite his recent thoughts of leaving, he's got Milwaukee thinking playoffs. He's also improved his 3-pt% and is shooting 37% on the year from distance.

Finally _____ was left off.

Yao Ming.

Wait ____ is an all-star? Hmm I suppose he is..

Luol Deng. This by no means means I don't think he's an all-star. This just means that if you asked a casual fan to list the all-stars, I doubt anyone stumbles past Luol Deng's name. He's been crucial to Chicago's success both for his defense on the wing as well as his clutch shooting. He's also rebounding at over 7 per game, which is extremely impressive given the fact that this team has Boozer and Noah down low.

I can't wait to see ______ at the all-star game!

Blake Griffin. Put him in a 5 on 5 lackadaisical game where lobs come easier than drunk sorority chicks, he's gonna be awesome to watch.

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For the record, here's some guys I thought had a chance: Greg Monroe, Tyson Chandler, Lou Williams, Rajon Rondo, Pau Gasol, Kyrie Irving, and Kyle Lowry.

All He Does is LIN

Jeremy Lin had yet another epic night in NYC as he explodes for 38 points and 7 assists and leads the New York Knicks to a win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Aside from being a worldwide trend on twitter, rejuvenating the Garden, and bringing 4 straight wins to a desperate NY team that is without its 2 superstars (Melo/Amar'e), Jeremy Lin is just a normal guy (or so he says).

It's hard to fathom that both Golden State and Houston passed on this guy and that given 10 minutes per game - yes he played 10 mpg for 29 games last year - for GS, that he couldn't have showed this kind of flash even ONCE. His season high was 13 last year, and he only ever reached double digits in scoring twice (12 points the other time). The statistics clearly show that he can't keep this up (prior to tonight, he was shooting just 27% from outside 5 feet), but until it does, he's certainly worth the watch. His dizzying array of drives to the hoop (he's still doing spin moves around Fisher), and his deceptively quick first step have given him a ton of early success and allowed him to win over New York City in a way unseen in a long time. Heck, there were M-V-P chants at the Garden tonight! I'm the first person to sit here and tell you that he's not nearly as good as he's been the past week, but I'm the same one that is tweeting out "HOLY CRAP, JEREMY LIN!". Enjoy the moment, because whether or not you are a Knicks fan, there are few things better in basketball than when a player is lighting it up in the Garden with the fans blowing the roof off the place.

#LINNING

Will Ferrell Announces Starting Line-ups

This is a couple days old now, and I had meant to post it earlier but it slipped my mind. If you haven't already seen this, you have to. Hilarious.

http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/02/will_ferrell_announces_startin.html

Chauncey Billups

Billups is out for the season with a torn Achilles tendon. Tough break for the Clippers and of course for Billups who is one of the class-acts in the NBA.

According to Yahoo! this could be the end of Billups career. Depressing.