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 But Oden’s intitially gregarious personality has seemingly disappeared, and the fact that he’s become more withdrawn seems to have the franchise afraid to pull the trigger on that decision.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.