Cetlics Knicks make moves posted by john howard

The Boston Celtics made a move that they hope gets them to the title.  They traded for Nate Robinson, a point guard that can score.  Here is how it breaks down:

Celtcis get ;   Nate Robinson, Marcus Landry

Knicks get:  Eddie House, JR Giddens, Bill Walker

They Celtics give up a hot shooter in House.  I hate to see him go.  But, they gain much needed depth at the point guard spot.  They can even use both Robinson and Rondo in the back court and really go more up tempo if needed.  They may be the biggest advantage for acquiring Robinson. They become quicker and more athletic.  It's also good for Robinson because he goes to a title contender.  He also gets a 1 million dollar bonus if they make the playoffs.

 The Knicks get rid of more cap room to sign big names this year.  Also, House played for D'Antoni in Phoenix.  So, he will fit in the system and get to play a lot. Giddens and Walker are young players that still may develope but may not.  So, it wasn't a loss for Boston and a potential for New York.

I give both teams thumbs up on this one.

Cleveland and Lebron will win its first championship since 1964 posted by Colin Linneweber

The Cleveland Cavaliers acquired two-time All-Star Antawn Jamison in a three-team trade Wednesday night. 

Cleveland, who has won 11 consecutive games and owns the best record in the league at 43-11, only squandered Zydrunas Ilgauskas and their first round pick to obtain Jamison. 

Jamison, 33, the fourth overall selection in the 1998 NBA Draft out of the University of North Carolina, is a skilled and rugged power forward who was averaging an impressive 20.5 points for the Washington Wizards prior to last night’s transaction. 

At this juncture, barring an injury to superstar Lebron James, the Cavaliers seem destined to easily waltz through the Eastern Conference and into the NBA Finals in June. 

James, 25, a three-time All-NBA First Team selection and the 2009 MVP, is indisputably the best player in the world today. 

Ever since he made his professional debut with Cleveland in 2003, James hasn’t been surrounded with enough talent to capture a title. 

However, with legendary center Shaquille O’Neal, 2009 All-Star point guard Mo Williams and Jamison, James now has the type of teammates that can win help him win the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy. 

Presently, the only squads that are even remotely capable of competing with Cleveland are the Boston Celtics (33-18), the Orlando Magic (37-18), the San Antonio Spurs (31-21) and the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers (42-13). 

The Celtics, Magic and Spurs are all very solid teams. 

Nevertheless, in actuality, not one of those three teams can genuinely topple the Cavs. 

NBA Playoffs Eastern conference posted by john howard

It's the All-Star break and time to asses where the season is at.  There are roughly 30 games left and the trading deadline is looming.  Here is a look at the playoffs if they were today.

1 Cleveland vs.  8 Chicago

2 Orlando vs   7 Miami

3 Atlanta vs 6 Charlotte

4 Boston vs 5 Toronto

Chicago looks like they have regressed overall from last year. But lately, they have started getting into the groove. Derrick Rose is unreal and they might win a game but they won't beat Cleveland.

Miami has one of the top 3 players in the game in Dwayne Wade.  This team could look different by playoff time. No matter how the team looks, it would take an incredible performance for even Wade to beat out Orlando.

Charlotte is a great story of over achieving.  They might be able to push Atlanta to a game 6, but that would be the best they could do.

The quietest success has been Toronto.  They are the 5th seed and no one is talking about them.  They have a shot to beat the Celtics if Boston is plagued with injuries.  But this has been a good year so far for the Raptors.

Boston has fallen from favorite to the 4th seed.  They still have the experience and firepower to go all the way. But, to do that everyone is going to have to get healthy and be at peak level which hasn't happened this year. Time is running out on the Celtics.

3 Atlanta has the best team in years.  They could be the underdog favorite after the first round.  A matchup with Orlando in round 2 is going to be fun.  Should they get past the Magic, they will be convinced they can beat anybody. 

All-Star Game 2010 H.O.R.S.E Competition Lineup Travesty posted by Patrick Lo

So the lineup has been set for the 2nd All-Star H.O.R.S.E competition with Kevin Durant defending his title against Omri Casppi of the Kings and 1st time All-Star Rajon Rondo from the Celtics. I don't get it.

Aside from Durant's ridiculous shot-making ability what about these contestants scream HORSE champion? Casspi's marketable, First Israelian-born NBA player, I get that. Rondo, well he has his headband. Half of the game of HORSE is about trashtalking, one-upmanship and some creativity and while I wouldn't question any of these players' passion for the game, I'm not feeling it. Rondo certainly has that capacity after a tussle with cp3 earlier in the season, but he needs to play off of others in order for this to be entertaining or even watchable.

I would propose a field along the lines of Monta Ellis(whose recent shenanigans can be seen here, here, or here), Baron Davis(because of his good-natured trashtalking), and Steve Nash(whose creativity is unparalleled). I realize they're all point guards, but I think while the long, athletic forwards and centers are having their fun in the dunk contest, the smaller guards of the nba get the pathetic All-Star skills challenge. Seriously, I'm sure the commercials ran during that will be infinitely more entertaining.

If any of you remember the competition from last year with KD, O.J. Mayo, and Joe Johnson then you'll know that it pretty much turned into a game of who has the longest range. We didn't need the HORSE game to figure that out. All I ask is for some contestants that have shown some sort of creative expression either on or off the basketball court. I don't think that's too daunting of a task to handle.

A Message to Boston Sports Fans posted by Charles Bisbee

There’s been a lot of griping recently over the state of Boston sports, serving (for me) as another ugly reminder of the developing, spoiled and cocksure nature of fans in this area. Let’s take a quick look, shall we?

Despite not  having played superbly of late, the Celtics stand at 31-16 and hold a five-and-a-half game lead in their division over Toronto.  

The Patriots finished the season at 10-6 (and a perfect 8-0 at home) and lost in the conference semi-finals to Baltimore.

The line between the Red Sox and Yankees is becoming more blurred each year (I know, I know, blasphemous!). But the Sox pay more and more to rob smaller market teams of their best players. Last year they finished 95-67 and, again, made the playoffs.

The Bruins are apparently stinking up then Garden this year but last year made a nice push into the playoffs.

All this leading me to ask, “what the deuce is the matter with Boston sports fans?” Have we become so spoiled and jaded by the seemingly constant ticker-tape parades down Tremont St. that we’ve subconsciously assumed an unwarranted sense of entitlement traditionally held by Yankee fans?

Not to sound like some ornery, old folgie wannabe but do you remember the early-mid 90’s? Do you remember Carlos Quintana? Todd Day? How about Marty Conlan? Lets gain a little perspective and lose the sense of entitlement. Isn’t that what always has (and still should) differentiate us from Yankee fans?

Poor Oden faces another absence posted by Andy Charles

 You just have to wonder what Greg Oden has done to deserve his bad luck since arriving in the NBA after his third season was ended abruptly by a fractured kneecap over the weekend.

The top pick in the 2007 Draft missed the whole of his rookie season and another 20 games last season, but had just started to show the reasoning behind Portland picking him at No 1 with some excellent performances, including matching his career high for points with 24 against the Bulls.

Sadly, this means the previous talk of Oden being brittle will reach a crescendo, although the injury came about in freak fashion when he clashed with Houston’s Aaron Brooks attempting to go for a block.

The seven-footer will have surgery this week after an MRI scan revealed the significance of the injury and his absence will be felt badly by the Trail Blazers, who also have injury worries about LaMarcus Aldridge at the moment despite him continuing to play hurt.

The other knock on Oden’s game since he went professional is that, some claim, he is far too nice – something that again came to the fore in the wake of his injury.

Teammate Brandon Roy said: "He kept apologizing to us when he was getting dragged off the court. He felt he let us down."

General manager Kevin Pritchard added: "I can't tell you how much of a great kid Greg is. He'll pull through this. I know him. He's a tough kid and he cares. I'm telling you that he was more interested in the score of the game than how he was. I've never seen anything like that.''

LeBron Makes His Only Trip to "The Garden" Tonight posted by Scott Shepherd

LeBron James makes his only trip to Madison Square Garden tonight.

For the past two seasons there has been plenty of talk about LeBron bolting his hometown of Cleveland for the bright lights of New York City.

In his career, LeBron has been fantastic at the Garden. He’s averaged 30.1 points, 6.6 assists, 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 steals in ten trips to The Garden. In his last two trips to the Mecca of Basketball, he’s had a 52-10-9 game and a 50-10-8 game.

Needless to say, all eyes will be on LeBron tonight to see if he can put on another show on Broadway.

Also on tap for tonight, the undefeated Nuggets make their only trip to Miami to take on Dwyane Wade and the Heat; the Pistons look to continue their dominance over the Magic in Orlando; and the Suns try to outrun the Celtics in Boston.

I’m gonna wear out my Directv remote trying to keep up with all the games tonight. Should be a great night of basketball.

Stay tuned…

Deep 86-ed posted by Randolph Charlotin

Pardon me while I go off track for a moment.

Last night I watched one of ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentaries. It was “Without Bias: The Len Bias Story” or something like that. It didn’t blow me away as far as storytelling goes, but it was well done.

Near the end of the program, the documentary quickly reviewed what happened the year Bias died. In 1986, the New England Patriots were stomped by the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX. The Red Sox blew the World Series against the New York Mets. And though the Boston Celtics won the NBA Championship that year, Len’s June death began the 1986-87 season. A season the Celtics were unable to repeat as champions without Bias.

Not mentioned by the documentary was the Boston Bruins. The Black and Gold lost in the Division Semi-Finals in 85-86 and 86-87.

All in all, it was a very bad year for Boston sports.

C's Banking on Rondo posted by Charles Bisbee

Earlier today, the Celtics awarded point guard Rajon Rondo with a 5-year contract extension believed to be in the neighborhood of $55 million. I like Rondo as a player but I’m a bit concerned about banking the future on a mercurial 23-year-old hot shot with a burgeoning prima donna complex and a history of instigating senseless scuffles.

Critics say Rondo lacks a consistent jump shot but I disagree. He’s basically money with that 15-20 foot baseline jumper. He’s not a three-point shooter but the C’s already have Ray, Pierce and Rasheed chucking the long ball on a regular basis. Furthermore, with Rondo’s speed, jump shots should be used as a last option anyway.  

What primarily concerns me is Rondo’s attitude and potentially divisive personality. During the course of his three-year career, he has engaged in numerous (and mostly pointless) altercations with other players. In addition, word is he is aloof from teammates and generally unresponsive to coaching or advice. That Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers actively shopped him this past off-season should speak volumes about management’s doubts and concerns. While supremely talented (I would rank him among the top-five point guards in the league), I think the C’s should have waited for the season to play out before making this kind of commitment to such a young and generally unproven player.

Fun With Box Scores posted by Scott Shepherd

In the NBA these days, it seems like there is a stat for everything. We’ve got PER, offensive efficiency ratings, defensive efficiency rating, and so on and so on.

It seems like every team in the league now employs their own stat guru. And while I’m not one to question the use of all these new statistics to evaluate NBA players (I actually kinda like them), I’m old school.

To me, all the new stats in the world can’t tell the story of an NBA game as well as the good, old fashioned box score.

Therefore, I’m starting a new feature today called “Fun With Box Scores”.

Every Monday, I’ll be posting some of the more interesting things that jumped out at me from the previous week’s box scores.

This week, they are, in no particular order:

The Cavs were +38 when LeBron was on the floor this week. They were -27 when he wasn’t.

Meanwhile, the Cavs were -3 when Shaq was on the floor and +19 when he wasn’t.

Rasheed Wallace took 8 shots on Wednesday…all three pointers. For the week, ‘Sheed attempted 36 shots. 25 of them were three pointers.

Danilo Gallinari was 8-16 from deep on Saturday. He was 1-6 on two-point shots. For the week he was 18-36 on three-point shots and 4-11 on two-point attempts.

Carmelo Anthony had 113 points in 116 minutes this week.

Greg Oden had 26 points in 99 minutes. He also had 19 fouls.

Speaking of fouls, Hasheem Thabeet had 8 in 24 minutes of play this week. In his defense, he did have four blocks, giving him a nice one block for every two fouls ratio.

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Rondo, Garnett lead Celtics past Sixers (AP)

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Veteran F Finley signs with Celtics (AP)

Michael Finley will celebrate his 37th birthday Saturday as a member of the Boston Celtics. The veteran swingman asked for and was granted his release from the San Antonio Spurs earlier this week. He will earn a prorated portion of the veteran's minimum of $1.1 million. Celtics head coach Doc Rivers said after practice in Philadelphia on Friday that he expects Finley to join the team in Boston... [read full article]

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Pierce scores 27 as Celts rout Bobcats (AP)

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