Around The NBA - [Part 1]: Updated Games PG. 58

[Woodsanity]

BTW - Bulls looked pretty pathetic yesterday against the Clips. They look like a lottery team.

They are going to be a low seed in the East since the East is weak. They loss a lot of depth and no Rose but they are still an elite defensive team. A low seed in the East will often look like a lottery team when they go against an Elite Western Conference team at home so no surprise there. The Clippers are just a lot better than the Bulls plain and simple. I hate to say it but the West is just a lot more stacked. OKC, Spurs, Clippers, Lakers, Grizzlies would all be top 4 seeds in the East. They are all better than Boston in my opinion.

[Red Vines]

Rockets are embarrassing themselves.

And now the Lakers defense is embarrassing itself.

Interesting game...

[Red Vines]

Lakers are playing inside-out, will that continue under Pringles? Also, their offense is faster but they can't keep up the pace defensively--Hou is getting a lot of easy baskets.

[ATTL]

Parsons is lighting up the Lakers

[fdr2012]

You might not wanna judge him at any point in the season if your source of information is going to be fdr2012's comments.

LOL. My source of information is actually NBA.com:

10.3 ppg @ 34% shooting. Can you name another back-court player making $8M+ with worse production? Only guy I could think of is Stuckey.

[fdr2012]

They are going to be a low seed in the East since the East is weak. They loss a lot of depth and no Rose but they are still an elite defensive team. A low seed in the East will often look like a lottery team when they go against an Elite Western Conference team at home so no surprise there. The Clippers are just a lot better than the Bulls plain and simple. I hate to say it but the West is just a lot more stacked. OKC, Spurs, Clippers, Lakers, Grizzlies would all be top 4 seeds in the East. They are all better than Boston in my opinion.

Lost again to the Blazers. They could easily find themselves out of the playoffs. Just a bad team, and their defense isn't that good anymore.

[Leaguepass]

BTW, prior to the start of the season I admit being worried about the Nets because they have a solid starting 5 but after watching them a couple times I can confidently say that I'd be surprised if a healthy Knick squad loses a single game in a playoff series against them. I don't think they're a threat AT ALL. Looks like your typical 45win-get trashed-in-the-first-round-of-the-playoffs-team.

Like us the past two seasons?

Yeah pretty much. Since joining the Nets I've watched Deron Williams in a bout 25 games I believe. Except maybe 2-3 games he's never looked the way he looked in Utah. He is still a top 5 PG but I rarely get the impression that he can really take over games in a major way like Chris Paul or Derrick Rose can. That Brooklyn team can be easily scored on. I also feel like we have a terrific chance against teams that rely on a big man for scoring....Tyson has yet to play Lopez but I think he'd severaly cut into Brook's production. In fact with Wallace,Camby and Tyson the Nets trio of Lopez/Humphries and Blatche will have huge trouble scoring the ball. On the other side they have absolutely no one to deny Stat and Melo. Wallace can maybe make life a little difficult for Melo but he is not the guy to really bother Melo too much. On top of that they have no one to stay with J.R.---I'm looking forward to the Brooklyn game but if we bring the same defensive intensity like yesterday I think we won't have any trouble beating them. Once Stat returns they don't stand much of a chance IMO. With Felton,Kidd,Prigs,Shumpert,Smith,Brewer we have a bunch of guys to throw at Williams/Johnson.

[god shammgod]

brandon roy having surgery again. just sad.

[ORANGEandBLUE]

BTW - Bulls looked pretty pathetic yesterday against the Clips. They look like a lottery team.

They are going to be a low seed in the East since the East is weak. They loss a lot of depth and no Rose but they are still an elite defensive team. A low seed in the East will often look like a lottery team when they go against an Elite Western Conference team at home so no surprise there. The Clippers are just a lot better than the Bulls plain and simple. I hate to say it but the West is just a lot more stacked. OKC, Spurs, Clippers, Lakers, Grizzlies would all be top 4 seeds in the East. They are all better than Boston in my opinion.

Chicago worries me a little bit. Due to the ineptitude of the Sixers and Pacers, they won't have too difficult of a time sneaking into the playoffs. And once they are there, all bets are off. We don't match up great against them because they have great defensive forwards who can do a good job guarding Melo and Amare. Plus they can punish us on the boards. We would definitely need Shump to be near 100%, because our guards haven't looked great at stopping penetration. I know Chicago has lost a lot of bench depth, but they may be able to replace some of it at the trade deadline if they think Rose is healthy enough to make a playoff run. They have picks to offer, plus there will be buy-out guys that Chicago will be able to offer a full slate of minutes to. I would put them right up there with Boston as a team that would give us a good fight in the playoffs.

[j4remi]

brandon roy having surgery again. just sad.

Imagine Brandon Roy healthy, playing with Lamarcus Aldridge in his current form and Nicolas Batum as the THIRD OPTION!? ...That'd be a phenomenal team.

[GoodAzzGame_NYK]

i see my man TD is starting to take some minutes away from Mr. Lin.

Not that plus minus is always a telling statistic but -20 last night and he is -31 for the entire season is not a good look for him.

[fdr2012]

Chicago worries me a little bit. Due to the ineptitude of the Sixers and Pacers, they won't have too difficult of a time sneaking into the playoffs. And once they are there, all bets are off. We don't match up great against them because they have great defensive forwards who can do a good job guarding Melo and Amare. Plus they can punish us on the boards. We would definitely need Shump to be near 100%, because our guards haven't looked great at stopping penetration. I know Chicago has lost a lot of bench depth, but they may be able to replace some of it at the trade deadline if they think Rose is healthy enough to make a playoff run. They have picks to offer, plus there will be buy-out guys that Chicago will be able to offer a full slate of minutes to. I would put them right up there with Boston as a team that would give us a good fight in the playoffs.

Boozer is a good defensive forward? And Melo torched Deng last season. We have Chandler to eliminate any problems that Noah may cause. They have no bench and there's no way they can keep up with our size and depth at all positions. We match up great with the Bulls. We'll eat them for lunch and spit them out.

Really, the only teams we have trouble matching up with are those with massive guys at the 4, like Memphis with Randolph, and maybe the Lakers with Gasol.

[god shammgod]

i see my man TD is starting to take some minutes away from Mr. Lin.

Not that plus minus is always a telling statistic but -20 last night and he is -31 for the entire season is not a good look for him.

being outplayed by toney. that's a damn shame.

[j4remi]

i see my man TD is starting to take some minutes away from Mr. Lin.

Not that plus minus is always a telling statistic but -20 last night and he is -31 for the entire season is not a good look for him.

being outplayed by toney. that's a damn shame.

He's not outplaying Lin though...He's shooting MISERABLE numbers...but I think, since Lin is shooting poorly as well and since the Rockets game plan is to let Harden be the main playmaker...TD's defensive prowess gives him an edge in some situations.

[ORANGEandBLUE]

[

Boozer is a good defensive forward? And Melo torched Deng last season. We have Chandler to eliminate any problems that Noah may cause. They have no bench and there's no way they can keep up with our size and depth at all positions. We match up great with the Bulls. We'll eat them for lunch and spit them out.

Really, the only teams we have trouble matching up with are those with massive guys at the 4, like Memphis with Randolph, and maybe the Lakers with Gasol.

I was referring to Deng, Gibson, and Noah. Noah can do a good job matching up with Stat. Gibson did a great job against Melo last year, and to a lesser extent, so did Deng. Yeah, Melo torched them, but mostly on contested j's and layups in transition. Yes Melo will get his points, but other than Lebron, those are two of the best guys in the league at guarding Melo.

As I said, the Bulls can rebuild their bench during the season.

Boozer is somewhat similar to Randolph... you don't want Melo guarding him. We'd have to go big against Chicago and it remains to be seen how that will affect us given that we've been going small so far this season.

Last year Chicago definitely gave us trouble. We had two must-win games against them down the stretch. We won one of them due to a HOF performance by Melo. In the other one they just pummeled us on the boards and Gibson was able to contain Melo.