Dec 30th 2008 12:45PM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Cavaliers, Celtics, Heat, Trail Blazers

I have little doubt
my friends in the District of Columbia and Motor City have the birthday cakes
and noisemakers ready for NBA TV’s 24-hour celebration of The Chosen One,
LeBron James. Check here for the LeBron Day programming schedule, which leads up
to …

HEADLINERS
Cleveland at Miami, 7:30PM EST, NBA TV

Home-and-homes might be the best
scheduling quirk, and (given the right teams) carry a sort of playoff-type mood.
The Portland-Denver home-and-home last week added some flavor, and this
Cavs-Heat match could do the same. Of course, Dwyane Wade and LeBron are good
friends; this isn’t a rivalry with any off-court smoke. But Wade almost
caught LeBron on Sunday, and given the type of competitors we know Wade to be
you’d imagine he’d love to make a statement by upsetting The King on
his special day.Continue Reading

Dec 29th 2008 2:15PM by Brett Pollakoff (author feed)
Filed under: Trail Blazers, NBA Media WatchAt the beginning of a weekend column
in , John Canzano tells the tale of Greg Oden occasionally isolating himself
from teammates in the back of the plane, which is something he used to do to
stretch out his injured leg on long flights. The problem? He’s healthy
now, so it appears to be more of a reclusive move by last year’s top draft
pick than it is anything else.

The point of the column is to point out
that Joel Przybilla should be in the starting lineup and that Oden should be
coming off the bench. But Oden’s intitially gregarious personality has
seemingly disappeared, and the fact that he’s become more withdrawn seems
to have the franchise afraid to pull the trigger on that decision. Canzano
points out that at the moment, they’re treating Oden with kid gloves, to
the detriment of the franchise.Continue Reading

Dec 29th 2008 1:45PM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Celtics, Jazz, Nets, Trail BlazersFormer NBA bad boy Bonzi Wells
scored as he continued his spectacular start in Chinese basketball’s top
league, leading Shanxi Zhongyu to an overtime victory.” - AFP, via You
Been Blinded.

“[Channing Frye’s] primary World of Warcraft
character is — though he maintains he’s not as serious about the
game as Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko, who has a ‘.’”
— Williamette Week, via TH.

Bob Cousy: “This [parade] thing,
as I said I had no idea what to expect, I have never seen anything like it.
There had to have been a million-and-a-quarter people on a Thursday morning
throughout that whole route! They were hanging from the trees and the
poles.” — Hoops Addict.

“Once an energetic spark off
New Jersey’s bench, [Sean] Williams may need MapQuest to .” —
Hoopsworld.

Chris Paul’s little things, a new Carnival of the NBA,
and Mark Cuban’s insane idea to take over sports pages everywhere.

Dec 26th 2008 11:25AM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Bucks, Grizzlies, Knicks, Magic, Mavericks, Trail Blazers, NBA
All-Star Game, ThunderThree-quarters of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest field has been
set, and the confirmed are familiar faces: reigning champ Dwight Howard, former
champ Nate Robinson and underwhelming 2008 competitor Rudy Gay. For the fourth
slot, the league is holding a fan vote between three rookies: Joe Alexander,
Russell Westbrook and Rudy Fernandez. There is no way Rudy loses this, between
his rabid Portland base and the legions of devoted Spanish fans who will pump
the vote. And while Joe was born with moon shoes on and Westbrook could be the
best point guard dunker in a decade, I’m not mad at a Rudy candidacy.
Howard, I suspect, might be.

It may be surprising that Gerald Green
isn’t involved, given that he is a living champion and possibly deserved
more consideration for last season’s Birthday Cake dunk. Like others
before him, though, Green has separated himself from Dunk Contest
immortality.”I don’t want to do it,” Green said. “They
can keep it.”Sorry G. You can’t quit the dunk contest … the
dunk contest quits you. (Unless you are Gerald Wallace.)

Dec 25th 2008 9:00AM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Cavaliers, Celtics, Hornets, Lakers, Magic, Mavericks, Spurs, Suns,
Trail Blazers, Wizards

Guess what will be dominating TVs all across
America on Christmas Day? OK … guess what non-, non-Yule log programming
will be dominating TVs across American on Christmas? Pro basketball. As you
might have heard, the networks have five nationally televised games
today.

Everyone’s been patiently awaiting this match-up since June,
when the Celtics danced all over the Lakers’ hearts in a Game 6 pounding
to win the championship. It also doesn’t hurt that Boston has run off to a
remarkable 27-2 start — that’s a NCAA win-loss record, not an NBA
one — and that the Lakers are clearly the class of the West.

It
could be argued that the have been looking forward to this game a little too
much: with two losses in Florida and a close class in Tennessee over the past
week, L.A. has been limping a bit. Of course, the team still has the
league’s No. 3 offense and No. 4 defense on paper. Twenty-seven teams
would kill for L.A.’s record.
Continue Reading

Dec 23rd 2008 2:30PM by Will Brinson (author feed)
Filed under: Bobcats, Cavaliers, Celtics, Lakers, Suns, Trail Blazers, NBA Fans,
NBA Gossip, NBA Media Watch
The NBA on Christmas Day is a tradition at my house. (Well, I like to watch it
— the rest of my family either shoots guns or goes to the movies.) And as
a result, I’m highly intrigued by the various storylines that emerge for
each of the games that are set to go down.

And this year, there’s a
spicy little twist to the storylines: tons and tons of new shoes. Well, five
pairs to be exact, but they’re coming from the game’s biggest stars.
LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Brandon Roy and Steve Nash will all drop
new kicks on the public come Christmas Day. And since the folks at Nike.com have
been kind enough to share them with us (and a sick new Kobe commercial)
we’re going to do the same with you.

LeBron’s, featured
above, are the “Zoom LeBron VI (Chalk Edition)”:

“In
keeping what has become a tradition in the Zoom LeBron series, the Cleveland
Cavaliers star will unveil yet another special Zoom LeBron VI on Christmas Day.
This year, LeBron will break out the “Chalk” edition of his
signature sneaker when he takes the court on Christmas Day. The Zoom LeBronVI
“Chalk” shoe takes its inspiration from LeBron’s pregame
ritual of tossing talcum chalk in the air before each game. The tongue of the
shoe features a silhouette of LeBron tossing chalk in the air. The shoes’
colors matches the Cavs alternate blue uniforms. A limited number of the Zoom
LeBron VI “Chalk” shoe will be sold at the Quicken Loans Arena on
Christmas Day.”

More kicks and information after the jump.Continue
Reading

Dec 23rd 2008 1:50PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
Filed under: Cavaliers, Lakers, Trail Blazers, NBA Media Watch, NBA VideosWe got
a sneak peek at some of the NBA’s new commercials a couple of weeks ago,
but they’ve been leaked on YouTube in all their full-length, flash video
glory:

There’s two more after the jump, including a Cyndi Lauper
loving LeBron James and a sweaty Pau Gasol.Continue Reading

Dec 19th 2008 12:28PM by Brett Pollakoff (author feed)
Filed under: Suns, Trail Blazers, NBA Last NightThere’s just something
about the Suns this season that makes the other team’s best player go
absolutely bonkers against them. Devin Harris did it, Dwyane Wade did it, and
last night, it was Brandon Roy’s turn. You could chalk it up to pace or a
lack of defense, but as you can see in this sampling of highlights from
Roy’s 52-point performance, a lot of his shots were contested, and
sometimes, a player just gets into that zone where they can’t be
stopped.

Despite Roy going off like that, the Suns led most of the way,
and even had their chances down the stretch. But an in-and-out three-pointer
from Jason Richardson, and a crazy bank shot from LaMarcus Aldridge late —
along with Roy shooting the lights out — were simply too much for the Suns
to overcome.

Dec 17th 2008 2:52PM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Trail BlazersCleveland and Portland boast the best offenses in the
NBA as of today. Tell that to a doc two months ago and you’d get tested
for diphtheria. The Cavaliers have seen a surge in execution around always
wondrous LeBron James. But Portland has done it a bit different. Only 11th in
the league in shooting, the Blazers have relied on second-chance opportunities
to rack up points.

Portland leads the league in offensive rebounding
percentage by a sizable margin. Joel Przybilla is a mammoth rebounder — he
sits 10th in the league on the offensive end and first on the defensive glass.
LaMarcus Aldridge is at 19th in offensive rebounding despite his perimeter game.
But the story is Greg Oden, who would be No. 2 in the NBA if he had enough
minutes to qualify. (He’ll get there soon enough.)

Portland’s
getting an offensive rebound on 33% of its missed shots. The league average is a
shade under 27%. Between missed shots and missed second free throws, the Blazers
have roughly 41 opportunities for an offensive rebound per game. The average NBA
team would capture 11. Portland nabs about 14. Those three extra chances make a
huge difference. (Likewise, as the No. 4 defensive rebounding team in the league
— thanks to Przybilla, Oden, Brandon Roy and Nicolas Batum — the
Blazers give up few second chances.)

Dec 10th 2008 12:55PM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Trail Blazers, NBA InjuriesBlazers small forward Martell Webster
returned from his broken foot Sunday in Toronto. He played five minutes in the
first half, but ended his stint at halftime with some soreness. Now reports
Webster is back in a walking boot and will be out another four weeks.

By
itself, this is not a serious problem for Portland, which ripped through a tough
November with rookie Nicolas Batum filling Webster’s starting spot ably
enough (especially on defense). More specifically, Portland’s offense has
been better than anyone expected; Webster is a shooter foremost, but the team
hasn’t really missed his jumper. It’s hard to imagine the team being
a whole lot better if Webster had been healthy.

Where this hurts is in
Kevin Pritchard’s private trade machine. Travis Outlaw remains to be one
of the few Blazers mentioned in rumors. Portland does have a few other assets:
Raef LaFrentz’s expiring, self-sustained contract, Sergio Rodriguez. But
Outlaw’s the man teams seem to want. And through all Steve Blake’s
success, the talk that the Blazers want a veteran point guard keeps
up.

With Webster on the shelf, can Portland afford to lose Outlaw? Small
forward is the one position in which Portland lacks remarkable depth. Rudy
Fernandez and Brandon Roy prefer the two-guard, and Channing Frye really
isn’t quick enough to go down a weight class. If Pritchard moves Outlaw
before Webster’s ready, there’s the risk of putting way too much
pressure on Batum and messing up the guard rotation.