Let the games begin... 2011 Christmas Day NBA TV Schedule: --Boston Celtics @ New York Knicks (TNT; 12 PM ET / 9 AM PT) --Miami Heat @ Dallas Mavericks (ABC; 2:30 PM ET / 11:30 AM PT) --Chicago Bulls @ Los Angeles Lakers (ABC; 5 PM ET / 2 PM PT) --Orlando Magic @ Oklahoma City Thunder (ESPN; 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT) --Los Angeles Clippers @ Golden State Warriors (ESPN 10:30 PM ET / 7:30 PM PT)
Kobe practiced today and reportedly will play in the game tomorrow. My only prediction for the season is that the Bulls will again finish above the Heat in the final regular season standings. Not sure what will happen in the playoffs, but I think the makeup of the Bulls' players and coaching staff is one that will be able to maintain focus and motivation during the March duldrums and the back-to-back-to-backs better than the Heat. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean much once you get to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Its way too difficult to predict any outcome this season with the 66 games and the back to back to backs. We might see a surprise or two. Maybe it'll be an unexpected contender or maybe it'll be one of the big teams tanking. (Lakers?? ) Now bring on the games. Oh and Merry Christmas to all you BS folk on here. Hope you all have a happy and healthy new year.
The Knicks with a half decent defense? It's looking fairly good. Melo destroyed even if he almost shat on everything with that horrible turnover towards the end.
When you see what Chandler does, and his effort and commitment on defense, he really does make Amare look like a joke in that aspect.
True. Chandler is a beast and the type of center the Knicks needed. Now what's missing is a point guard but hopefully Davis fixes that in the short run. That kid Shumpert was also good today. D' Antoni gave a lot of players time today and that was good. He was clearly looking at what worked and didn't with the bench.
You guys deserved it. It certainly was not your best game. Along with my previous post, you guys made your free throws and we bricked. You guys are just impecably good at playing to the last minute and getting the W. ------ ---/ Just put Howard and the Magic out of their misery. They just seem not to care against the Thunder so far.Come to Hollywood.
Team didn't look bad though. Maybe my expectations are really low this season but i thought we played fine, even good, overall. The late choke job was a ball buster but there are some real positives (Ebanks??) we can take from this.
Haha after replacing our good players with scrubs; a new coach; and having a bad preseason (i know i know it is preseason), I def have lowered my expectation. When we actually played defense in the second half, we looked great and even the new players were playing well. But that last minute was comedy. Ebanks has been a surprise, yes. He is killing it with the jump shot. I would have never thought he would be a starter in hus second year. I also like Goulde (sorry i messed up his name) and think his 3s will be pivitol. The negative has to Artest. He was putrid in preseason. Brown is looking to him to be our Odom/6th man.
does ebanks have the athleticism to become the new ariza? i havn't seen much of him and as a newcomer to the nba at the time, i knew little of arizas history or whether he was a stud at college? i think murphy could be a good role player pick up, he can stretch the floor....havn't seen much mcroberts to know enough....losing odom is not good, but i think if the lakers get deron williams or howard then it's not too much of a biggie....odoms d left alot to be desired
So far Ebanks does not have that Ariza athletism. He is def not the defensive stopper or rebounder we would like. I like Broussards possibility- Bynum for Howard Gasol for Williams Make it happen.
philly looked ok vs blazers who have a very good side! meeks needs to be benched more for me though, maybe start iggy at the 3 and let turner get some starts or give lou williams minutes at the 2.... we really lack inside pressence, brand fades away and hawes doesn't really go back to basket enough when he can! is vucevic injured? he diddn't play vs blazers! gonna watch lakers kings and maybe the clippers game from the other night! mavs and lakers 0-2 lol boston look done too, even if they only just lost to the knicks wouldn't mind okc taking it this year!
Really don't get the 3 games in a row - why do they need to cram so many games in? But anything that could lead to a Lakers 0-3 I guess can't be all bad
Not very happy with how we played last night. We need a good start out of the gate. I'll allow that it's going to take a little time to allow Gay to mesh with the sweetness that we had flowing in the playoffs. OKC isn't the team for doing that against, though. We need to open the GrindHouse strong tomorrow night.
Timberwolves looked quite good against OKC last night. They probably should have won. But of course Durant is on another level. Beasley was shooting too much but Rubio, Barea, and Williams all had good debuts. With Love it should be a good team overall. The all Spanish speaking guards which will eventually become the norm for them needs a good nick name. Funny that it's in Minnesota of all places. Spanish Armada.
Until we play the Heat in the playoffs. The Bulls are the Bears of basketball. They lose because their offense isn't good enough, then say after the game that the reason they lost was because the defense wasn't perfect. Noah might be the most overrated player in the NBA. His help defense is very good but he gets beaten a lot straight up, and his offense is borderline woeful. Unfortunately skinny Boozer doesn't look to be any better than fat Boozer, but I assume that nobody rates Boozer any more. If you do rate him, stop. He's a short-armed 30 year old with your grandma's vertical leap. Yeah he has guile but there are plenty of unathletic college senior with guile, and they would suck as NBA players too. On the bright side, Rip and Deng look good, Rose is better than good, and the Bulls' bench is terrific. Brewer, Taj, Asik, Watson, and Korver can play a lot of starting units straight up. Same as last year in other words. Bulls lose to Heat in Eastern Finals.
Sportsguy thinks boozer is due for a good year because he wasn't very healthy last year. His problem will always be that he's just not long and big enough to be a playoffs star.