Get it…TNT. Cause the doubleheader is on TNT. Come on guys that’s classic.
Before I get to any of the televised games, lets briefly talk about the Jazz/Rockets game that wasn’t on TNT. None of it will matter if they can’t get out of the first round, but this Houston team looks pretty dang good. T-Mac is on a damn mission ladies and gentlemen. He sat and stewed in the disappointment of having to remember another painful first round loss, having to leave an interview in near tears. He’s been sitting on that all summer. No Team USA for him. Add to his playoff disappointments the fact that after one of his best all-around seasons he is rarely mentioned in the discussion as one of the top players in the league. Kobe. LeBron. Melo. D-Wade. Gilbert. Where’s T-Mac?? Now he is lashing out. He has great weapons around him and less pressure to make plays. Tonight in Utah (a good defensive team with Brewer and Kirilenko) he went off. 47 points for Mr. McGrady as the Rockets won 106-95. The superstars are shining bright early on. Remember, Utah is a tough place to play no matter what time of the season so I give them credit for picking this up. I really think the Rockets additions (Mike James, Luis Scola and Bonzi Wells) and the free-flowing offense will give them a major league push. They won’t lose in the first round this year.
Boozer is a beast but your point guard can’t shoot 17 shots if you want to win.
Detroit outlasted Miami 91-80. You could tell Miami missed D-Wade in that 4th quarter. How did Miami stick around? Because Flip Saunders is an idiot. No seriously the Heat just have to get some other guys going. People are going to key in on Shaq, Ricky Davis is going to get his but they need a third player to Miami fans have to like how Jason Williams is healthy and the addition of Ricky Davis. Davis and Wade is a scary perimeter attack especially considering they have a big man. Miami is just a shooter away from really making noise. They don’t have Kapono anymore so now they don’t have anyone to make teams pay for doubling Shaq and in the future collapsing on D-Wade’s penetration. They need to scour the D-League for that or something, screw Anfernee. Detroit
Phoenix beat Seattle 106-99. The Suns were the Suns, entertaining, rusty but since when do they know when to put teams away? Seattle is a really scrappy team that is going to play teams tough every night but their youth is going to restrict them from putting a full 48 minutes together. I mean back-to-back nights they’ve been in the games but have had 4th quarter meltdowns. This is a year where they’ll learn and will be invaluable for their future. The key is can PJ keep the team? That is can he keep them fighting and playing hard and the right way or will he lose them like Bob Hill did last year? I don’t think it should be much of a problem, but with PJ’s past who knows. Durant had 27 points on 23 shots and 1 assist. He definitely had his flashes of brilliance where you go ‘That boy is going to be special’. But like a rookie he had his highs and lows. I worry that he may struggle to make others better in the future, but you know a player has the potential to be special when you’re already speculating about his future. He forced a few pullups, threes and running jumpers. Some of them went in and some of them didn’t. He also had a couple reckless drives that ended up being charges. That is all part of being a rookie, but I don’t think there is any denying he is going to a special player in this league, his struggles are just pretty obvious. Once he gets his shot selection down watch out.
While I stick on Seattle, I was telling Coup I like the makeup of their team. I for one think they should get rid of Earl Watson, he’s a little too turnover prone to be the PG of this team. Plus they have two very capable guards in Ridnour and West. I don’t know if the nose was bothering him but I wonder why Ridnour was only in for 7 minutes. He looked good out there had a couple great passes and ran the show. Delonte West (and his horrible sagging shorts) can provide defense, leadership and offense. Damien Wilkins shouldn’t be taking 14 shots a game though, I’d rather see Wally. Yeah I said it. Other than that they get up and down, they compete, I don’t mind watching them play the game. Major visual upgrade from last year.
Phoenix was Phoenix. Don’t really know what else to say about it. They are the definition of a team where nothing matters over this season. I’m sure Suns fans are going nuts all over the Valley and I don’t really have much to say about them either. Marcus Banks might have had the best game of his Suns life with 4 threes. Grant Hill has got to start hitting some open threes though, sheesh. I kept confusing him for Raja Bell and said ‘money’ until I saw the release. I was forced to say ‘Damn’ and watch it clank off the side.
Oh my god…did anyone see the YouTube question that Kenny Smith got asked. Unbelievable. I can wait till that is on YouTube. Is that backwards? Oh well.