Archive for February, 2011

Those true LeBron fans out there will have seen these games all too often. What is it about LeBron James led teams that cannot win the big matches. The Knicks added to the Heat’s abysmal record against not only .500 teams, but the other elite teams, and as more of a statement the Knicks did it in Miami, the first time the two All Star teams have played each other. Miami had the advantage of playing the entire season together, where New York have only had a week, but that seemed to make no difference as the Heat yet again [...]

Dwyane Wade and his Miami Heat improved to 22-5 at home this season following a vintage performance from the franchises greatest player. Wade put up a mammoth 41 points including 16 straight at one stage, to lead the Heat over the youthful Washington. Wade shot 18/27 in perhaps his most impressive game of the season. James chipped in with 25 points 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Miami’s bench actually turned up tonight, scoring 18 points, which is a huge improvement on their 2 point performance against Chicago. Nick Young, John Wall and JaVale McGee all had very strong performances and [...]

The Heat had their chances Thursday night against Chicago, but yet again find themselves on the wrong end of a showdown with an elite team. They let a strong lead go late in the fourth quarter and were unable to find their way back dropping a win following Boston’s shock loss to Denver. James had 29 points 10 rebounds 5 assists and one of the worst attempts at a game tying 3 I have seen . Wade had 34 points and 8 rebounds and made one of the worst defensive plays I have ever seen from an ‘All NBA Defender’ [...]

James scored 31 points in 30 minutes last night to help the Heat blowout the lowly Kings in Miami, their first game since the All Star break. James added 8 rebounds whilst Wade had 23 8 rebounds 7 assists whilst Bosh added 22 and 9 rebounds in a domination from Miami’s starters. It was perhaps the best possible way to get back into the regular season following the weekend off, playing a very bad team with nothing to lose and a chance to get back into the swing of things with an easy win. James and Wade showed no rust [...]

The Heat dominated the Kings for the duration of their match-up in Miami last night, their first game back since the All Star break and the unofficial beginning of the business half of the season. We now look forward to May and June, where the real basketball is played. Now becomes the most important few months probably in the history of this Heat team. They have themselves just below Boston at the top of the Eastern Conference. They are more than contenders for the championship this season. They have been as highly scrutinised and as overwhelming acclaimed as any team [...]

Melo is a Knick. No more daily indecisiveness smothering ESPN from Chris Broussard. No more ‘my sources tell me’, or ‘someone close to the Nuggets’ or ‘a personal friend of Carmelo’. Melo is a Knick. They ended up trading a little more than they had hoped for (Chandler, Felton, Gallinari, Mozgov, first round pick, 2 second round picks and $3 million cash) but it is much easier to rebuild a bench than to obtain a top 10, possibly a top 5 player. Carmelo certainly gives them that. The deal had to be done, regardless of the fact Melo is one [...]

The West defeated the East 148-143 in a close game last night in Los Angeles. Kobe Bryant led the way with 37 points in his fourth MVP performance of the All Star game to tie Bob Pettit’s record. James recorded a 29 point 12 rebounds 10 assist triple double, only the second in the history of the All Star game, of course Michael Jordan had the other. The game started somewhat slowly with the first two quarters dominated by open 3s and dunks, as is usually the case in All Star games. Kobe, despite his pre-game comments about having no [...]

All Star Saturday night lived up to its reputation this year as we saw perhaps the best entertainment of skills we have seen since Superman left the building. Atlanta began the night winning the less exciting Haier Shooting Stars event as Team Texas failed to hit a half court shot after missing more than 20 attempts. Steph Curry then moved on to win the Skills Challenge, an event that doesn’t seem to ever deliver because there is always at least one guy who isn’t trying. The 3 Point Shootout was as low scoring as I can remember with shooters barely [...]

The Rookies, on the back of a record 22 assists from MVP John Wall, defeated the Sophmores for the second consecutive year in what was surely the best Rookie Sophmore game we have seen in at least the past 5 years. Standout performances from Cousins, DeRozan, Harden, Curry and Griffin provided the crowd with awe inspiring dunk after awe inspiring dunk, the most impressive of which the Wall-Griffin bounce pass alley oop and the undersized DeJuan Blair throwing a huge one handed alley oop to himself off the backboard. The Celebrity game offered its own share of entertainment, especially to [...]

The Cavs are on fire. Their past 3 games they have a winning percentage of over 65%. As a Cavs fan this is nothing but ecstacy as Gilbert’s promise of a championship before Miami (which would almost certainly have to come this year) now looks to be back on track… Seriously… LeBron was also surprised and somewhat happy for his old team. “Good for the Cavs,” James said. “You definitely didn’t expect the Lakers to have another letdown in Cleveland. But I’ve played with a few of those guys in Cleveland and they want to win.” I believe the sincerity, [...]