Jan 5th 2009 8:38AM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Clippers, Knicks, Trail Blazers, NBA Last Night

Rule: if you
drop 30 points on Boston, you get special consideration for Doing Lines. Welcome
to the club, Wilson Chandler. The spiritual guide to D’Antoni Ball in the
Big Apple dropped 31 points on 19 FGAs, and added eight rebounds and no
turnovers. The hardest things to do against Boston: shoot efficiently and
protect the ball. You’re a man, Mr. Chandler. (Al Harrington also dropped
30.)

Nicolas Batum has been cold as a starter in Portland, but
Sunday’s loss to the Lakers featured a break-out of sorts: matched up
against clone Trevor Ariza, Batum had 17 points on perfect 6-6 shooting, along
with five rebounds, four assists and no turnovers. Batum’s starting
because of his defense and his willingness to stand in the corner and hoist up
open threes. It’s a boon when he can make those shots.

(20
rebounds, averaging 21/game over last four)Maybe soon they’ll replace
Camby’s cousin as the rebound arbiter. Seems a little unfair.

Jan 4th 2009 4:45PM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Knicks, Trail Blazers, NBA RumorsVia P&T, reputable Tommy Dee
of The Knicks Blog cites sources reporting that Portland is after New York
forward David Lee. This isn’t a particular surprise as every team in the
league (including the Knicks) loves Lee. The last rumor had New York refusing
Denver’s offer of Chucky Atkins (expiring contract, decent back-up PG on a
trigger-happy team) and two first-round picks for Lee. Two picks, even in the
20s … that’s a big of a haul, no? Given that reported rejection,
actual players would need to be involved from Portland’s side.

Dee
mentions Jerryd Bayless and Sergio Rodriguez, either of which could fit in to
New York’s program. Better, the trade of either secures the back-up point
guard position for the other, and that can’t hurt in terms of confidence.
(It’s like Harry Potter’s prophecy, or something.)

The
concern with Lee for Portland would be this: isn’t he superfluous? The
Blazers have little trouble on the glass and have a surprisingly efficient
offense. Lee’s strengths are … rebounding and efficient scoring.
Portland needs help on swing defense and bench shot creation. That’s not
Lee. At all.

Further, doesn’t Portland have enough offseason salary
issues piling up without the quixotic restricted free agency of Lee mucking
things up? Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge are eligible for extensions; Ike
Diogu and Channing Frye will be restricted free agents and the Blazers have
some cap space available, depending on the Darius Miles situation. Since the
Blazers must give up something to get Lee, the team won’t want to let him
slip for nothing. I don’t mean to question Kevin Pritchard’s ability
to get things done, but it seems like an added trouble with little real benefit
for this particular team.

Jan 3rd 2009 7:55PM by Matt Moore (author feed)
Filed under: Trail Blazers, NBA InjuriesOkay, good news, bad news, Blazers fans.

Good news: An MRI showed “no significant changes” to the
knee of Brandon Roy which has sidelined him recently. So you can go ahead and
exhale into the bag.

Bad news: He’s out 7-10 days, according to an
official team release via Blazer’s Edge. That would of course include
Sunday’s game versus the Lakers.

The upside is that after L.A. and
Detroit, the schedule isn’t brutal for the Blazers during that time.
They’ve got a series of middle-of-the-pack easter teams on a four game
road trip with a game against struggling Golden State next Saturday. They also
only have five games max in that time.

It’s possible this could
end up being a good thing for the Blazers. They desperately need someone on
their team, perhaps Rudy Fernandez as BE suggested, to step up and provide some
support. More and more close games have become the Roy Show and the Blazers will
need more come April.

Yeah, that’s just me trying to put a
positive spin on the fact that the Blazers have lost their best player for a
week with a wonky knee, and they haven’t exactly shined without him,
especially after getting blistered by the Hornets post-Tyson-Chandler ejection
the other night.

Buck up, little Blazers!

Jan 2nd 2009 12:30PM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Hornets, Jazz, Lakers, Trail Blazers

Every team in the
league plays tonight after the NBA took New Year’s Day off. But it’s
a League Pass party with ESPN ditching its typical Friday double-header for more
college football.

HEADLINERS
New Orleans at Portland, 10PM EST

The Blazers feel feisty after knocking
off the Champs earlier this week, while the Hornets need to make up some ground
on the Lakers to contend with L.A. for the Western top seed. It doesn’t
hurt that this is a nice little match-up between teams with similar offensive
goals.
Continue Reading

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