On the darkest night of the year

I watched a lot of damn games. Good fun.

Dallas is looking very good. LeBron had a bad game, and the Heat have many serious holes, but the Mavs pretty much controlled the game, despite some Heat flurries. Dirk was schooling Bosh so badly in the 1st quarter. Chandler is big and aggressive. Kidd, Terry, Butler and Barea form a potent perimeter. They have great depth. Serious stuff.

Miami, on the other hand, has major problems when the trot out Carlos Arroyo for anything but garbage time. That guy is doing nothing. Bosh's defensive presence (or lack thereof) is another major issue. Big Z has actually been serviceable in the middle, and the return of Mike Miller will help, but Miami still has work to do. But check this: During the Miami broadcast, they were hawking tocket packages to upcoming games. The Heat have available tickets. Who knew?

I really like the Hawks switchign Al Horford to power forward. He is going to go off. What this means for Josh Smith remains to be seen. He is sorta in that Kirilenko-Marion family of effective undersized fours who struggle at the three.

Does Gilbert's arrival mean the end of the Jameer Nelson era? I am not a Nelson fan, but I am not sure Gil should be running the show. Arenas is better than Nelson in every aspect of the game. But considering that Orlando brought back Turkoglu to presumbaly recreate the magic that lead to the Magic's magic moment of losing the in the Finals, my guess is that they will want the ball in Hedo's hands for a good portion of the game. Then factor is the mega-addition of Jason Richardson and his ability to score, and then the main game plan of getting it to Dwight, having a run-the-offense type liken Nelson may make sense for the Magic. Will that make sense to Gilbert? Losing the dead weight of Rashard Lewis was a great move for Orlando, but Arenas in Orlando is not necessarily smooth sailing.

LaMarcus Aldridge is going off. The last one standing of the Blazers three pillars of future glory, LaMarcus is emerging as a true force on both sides of the ball. Tough times in Blazerville, but there is still some fight in P-Town. Wes Matthews is a gem. Rumors are some teams are inquiring about Roy. Crazy as this sounds, if Roy cannot CARRY the franchise, the Blazers should move him as soon as possible. Look how Milwaukee is still holding the bag for Michael Redd. Breaks my heart to even tender these thoughts, but the NBA is unforgiven, and one hallmark of greatness is health.

By the by, with Yao out and likely done, who is the NBA's tallest player?

Got a letter from Orlando. . .

. . . the other day.
Open it and read it,
Said they were suckers

One of the things that pissed me off the most last year when Orlando shocked Cleveland to advance to the Finals last season was that I knew it guaranteed a Laker victory. Orlando has several suspect performers in their rotation, and their leader Dwight Howard has huge holes in his game. Left to their own devices in the Eastern Conference, Orlando could go on a Jim Kelly/Buffalo Bills run.

I don't believe in magic

I do believe in KG.

Things were a little bit different last time Boston tangled with the Magic. A bedraggled front line of Perk, Glen Davis, Mikki Moore and Brian Scalabrine played better than anyone might have imagined, taking the soon to be exposed Magic to an improbable 7 games. Boston actually had several chances to win the series, including late game free throw misses by Allen and Pierce. But the Magic were the better team, and they advanced.

The Magic are likely better than last year. Jameer Nelson is a huge upgrade on their side. Vince is going off right now. They have won 13 in a row, including two sweeps in the first two round.

Thing is, with KG on the Celts, I am not sure I like Orlando's chances.

Why is Micky crying?

One obvious reason Orlando is struggling the absurdly small role Dwight Howard plays in Orlando's offense. Somehow the Magic center is getting just 9.1 shots a game. Sometime Pacer center Roy Hibbert averages 9.2. Howard gets to the line 10 times a game compared to Hibbert's 2. But Howard has averaged 10 ft a game for several seasons, and is taking 3 less shots than he did last season. Stupid.