- RED’S ARMY comments on Phil Jackson’s decision to bring Andrew Bynum off the bench. (He’s making $12.5 million this season.)

- THE 700 LEVEL reports that Michael Vick will star in an eight-part “docu-series” (reality show?) on BET.

- STATE FARM has video of LeBron James working out with his old high school team. He says that if he wanted to, he could quit basketball and play in the NFL. Duh. Who wouldn’t want a 6’8″ phenomenal athlete playing tight end?

- Per DEADSPIN, Alabama fan (and Father of the Year candidate) Dave Grzyb is pleased that his daughter’s domestic abuse charge won’t interfere with the Crimson Tide’s season. Nice. The site also details an open letter to Ron Artest that went awry.

- WITH LEATHER has video of a hockey fight. Funny.

It’s not the matchup that everyone (outside of central Florida) wanted to see, but it’s a good matchup nonetheless. The Magic proved in their series against the Cavs that they are currently the best team in the East, and they’ll face the battle-tested Lakers who are coming off a pair of rough and rugged series against the Rockets and the Nuggets.

Orlando has been the more consistent team and they don’t get rattled. They get down big with regularity and have been able to get back into games by playing one possession at a time and not worrying too much about the scoreboard early on. Conversely, the Lakers have been “bipolar” (to quote their star) and no one really knows which team is going to show up. It seems to be a matter of focus and effort, and the Lakers have struggled with their consistency in both areas of the game. There are times that they look like the best team in the league and there are times when they look like they should have been knocked out in the first round.

Let’s look at each position and break down the different matchups…

Read the rest of this entry »

Typically, an NBA team can expect to score one point per possession (or thereabouts) over a course of a game. So when one team outrebounds another on the offensive glass by a margin of 20-9, it’s really 11 extra possessions and 11 extra opportunities to score. That’s why the Nuggets were able to bounce back tonight from a tough loss in Game 3; they dominated the glass by a margin of 58-40, and went on to win 120-101.

The win is even more impressive considering the struggles of Carmelo Anthony, who went 3 of 16 from the field. Chauncey Billups picked up the slack, and had key back-to-back buckets when the Nuggets were nursing a nine-point lead early in the fourth quarter. He drove to the hole and got the “and one,” and then on the Nuggets’ next possession, he brought the ball up and drained a three. Billups was one of seven Nuggets to score in double figures; J.R. Smith deserves mention for his 24 points and four assists off the bench.

Kobe Bryant posted 34 points on 10 of 26 shooting (39%). Pau Gasol added 21 points and 10 boards, and Andrew Bynum had 14 points and five boards, but Phil Jackson isn’t getting much production from the rest of the roster. Two vets that the Lakers are counting on — Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher — combined to shoot 3 of 15 for 10 points.

The series moves back to L.A. for Game 5 and if the Nuggets can avoid the mental errors in crunch time, they have a good shot to win this series. The Lakers are inconsistent and out of synch, and they really need that supporting cast to raise its game.

Like most NBA fans (outside the greater Houston area), once the news broke that Yao Ming was going to miss the rest of the playoffs with a foot injury, I wrote off the Rockets. How could they possibly keep pace with one of the top two teams in the league without their best player?

Since the injury, the Rockets have taken two of three from the Lakers, and if Kobe and Co. were truly championship worthy, they would have gone on the road and won Game 4 or Game 6. Laker apologists will probably just say that their team will still win in Game 7 and they’ll go on to win the championship, but really, they shouldn’t be in this position in the first place. Anything can happen in a single game, and sometimes, no matter what you do, it’s just not your night. What if the Rockets collectively catch fire like they did in Game 4? What if Kobe has one of his 5-for-20 days? Or what if Pau Gasol goes down with an injury that knocks him out of the game?

By letting the Rockets get back into the series, the Lakers have no margin for error. That’s the whole point of a seven-game series — it’s designed so that poor luck and bad nights don’t send a true champion home early.

Read the rest of this entry »

- SPORTSbyBROOKS writes about the supposedly budding relationship between Lakers center Andrew Bynum and pop star Rihanna.

- Awful Announcing posts hilarious “Superbadgeâ€� video, starring Suns’ Shaq and Alando Tucker and directed by Steve Nash.

- Hugging Harold Reynolds offers up an NFL Draft edition tale of the tape between Mel Kiper and Todd McShay.

- With Leather comments on Jake Delhomme’s new contract and his dance moves.

- The Big Lead dishes on Kevin Love’s disappointment over finishing sixth in the ROY voting.

Andrew Bynum returned from his knee injury Thursday night and posted 16 points (on 7 of 11 shooting) and seven rebounds in just 21 minutes, helping the Lakers defeat the Nuggets, 116-102. I watched his first few minutes of play and he looked like his old self, though his stamina still needs work.

If Bynum comes back at or near 100%, the Lakers are clearly the team to beat in the West. In fact, they’re the team to beat without him, so the addition only pushes them further ahead of the pack. Barring a major setback (to Kobe, Pau Gasol, Bynum or Odom), it’s doubtful that the Lakers will run into any serious problems in the West. Are there teams that can win a few games and maybe push a series to a Game 6 or Game 7? Sure, but I just don’t see anyone in the West upending a healthy Laker squad.

The stars are aligning for the Los Angeles Lakers. Yesterday, news broke that their chief rival to the Western Conference crown — the San Antonio Spurs — would be without the services of Manu Ginobili for the rest of the season. Now it looks like Andrew Bynum will be back before the week is out.

He probably won’t play Tuesday against the Sacramento Kings and he might not play Thursday against the Denver Nuggets. If he doesn’t play Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers, that leaves next Sunday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

It would be the perfect night and opponent, as far as Phil Jackson is concerned. The Lakers coach wants Bynum to clear a mental hurdle sooner rather than later. He doesn’t want the 7-foot center developing a complex about facing the Grizzlies.

Maybe it’s too late, however.

Bynum tore a right knee ligament Jan. 31 against Memphis.

He injured his left kneecap Jan. 13, 2008, against Memphis.

He faced Marc Gasol when he was hurt this season.

He faced Pau Gasol when he was hurt last season.

He scored 25 points in the game before he was injured this season.

He scored 25 points in the game before he was injured last season.

Bynum runs down the list of coincidences with anyone who will listen. Jackson would prefer Bynum get past his phobia about playing against Memphis.

Jackson said Bynum’s role has yet to be determined, although he might be better suited to start because he could warm up and then begin the game. He wouldn’t have to warm up, then sit and get stiff and then try to play.

Prior to the Ginobili injury, I thought that the Lakers would need a healthy and productive Bynum to make the Finals again, but now I’m not so sure. Barring an injury to Kobe Bryant or Pau Gasol, the Lakers look like they are destined for a second consecutive Finals appearance, so Bynum’s impending return is just frosting on the cake.

You can blame it on the Grizzlies.

Ever since they traded Pau Gasol to the Lakers for a bag of peanuts and some slightly used underwear, NBA teams have become more and more fickle about pulling the proverbial trigger. With the state of the economy, and some owners desperately trying to cut payroll before the cap and luxury tax thresholds decline, it’s a buyer’s market out there. And those buyers are looking for Gasol-type deals. On the flip side, Chris Wallace took all kinds of grief over that trade and general managers around the league don’t want to follow in his footsteps.

After two or three weeks of covering all of this trade chatter, the biggest deal to speak of is the Shawn Marion/Jermaine O’Neal swap and that happened almost a week ago. Sure, guys like Brad Miller, Andres Nocioni, John Salmons, Rafer Alston, Larry Hughes, Tim Thomas, Chris Wilcox and Drew Gooden changed zip codes, but I doubt any fans out there are sporting wood at the idea that one or more of these players is joining their team.

This year’s trade deadline was mostly about teams setting themselves up financially for the next two summers of free agency. Even though there were a number of big names bandied about, the Marion/O’Neal deal is the only semi-blockbuster trade of the season. And, barring some last-minute, late-breaking deal, we have these five teams to blame…

5. San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs were in talks with the Nets about acquiring Vince Carter and also spoke with the Bucks about Richard Jefferson. Either of those players would have been a nice addition, but the Spurs just don’t have the pieces (or the balls) to pull off a trade like that. They were willing to trade for Carter, but they didn’t want to give up Roger Mason or George Hill. So they offer the Nets Bruce Bowen and Fabricio Oberto. Great, the numbers don’t even add up. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t really think that the Spurs should have given up Mason and/or Hill to acquire Carter. They’re arguably the second-best team in the West and their current lineup, if healthy, is likely to give the Lakers fits if the two teams meet in the playoffs with a less-than-100% Andrew Bynum. Plus the Spurs are notoriously conservative when it comes to messing with their chemistry. Jefferson wouldn’t have been a problem in that area but Carter might have been. So the Spurs stand pat. Shocker.

The Cavs were up 61-51 at halftime, but a 22-8 run to start the third quarter put the Lakers in control of the game, and they went on to win, 101-91. That run included an 11-0 spurt at the start of the quarter, and Mike Brown failed to call a timeout to stop the bleeding. After all, the Cavs are still a young team, so they are not as adept at playing through adversity as, say, the Celtics, Spurs or even the Lakers. I kept waiting for Brown to call a timeout but it never happened, and in many ways, that shift of momentum at the beginning of the second half was the difference in the game.

But it didn’t help that LeBron James shot 5 of 20 from the field. He had a near triple-double (16 points, 12 assists, eight rebounds) but he’d be the first to admit that he didn’t play very well. It’s not often that the Cavs get 57 combined points from Mo Williams, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Wally Szczerbiak and still find a way to lose, but they did just that today.

After the loss of Andrew Bynum for 8-12 weeks, the Lakers have to feel great about completing this five-game road trip with consecutive wins against the Celtics and Cavs. Kobe was apparently battling the flu, but still managed to outscore LeBron (with 19 points) and hit a crucial rainbow jumper with just 2:48 remaining to put the Lakers up six. Lamar Odom (28 points, 17 rebounds) continues to play big basketball in Bynum’s absence, and is doing wonders for the contract that he’ll be signing this summer as a free agent.

So with a 1-3 combined record against the Celtics and Lakers, do the Cavs make a move with Szczerbiak’s expiring contract or do they stand pat and hope for the best? I think they have to do everything they can to win a title (or at least get to the Finals this year) if they hope to keep LeBron next summer, but clearly they have to hold out for a deal that has a great chance to make them better. I think they could package Szczerbiak with Hickson (and maybe a first round pick or two) and get themselves an impact big like Jermaine O’Neal.

Is that worth the risk? Well, O’Neal had 22 points, nine boards and nine blocks in a recent loss against the Lakers and his contract expires in 2010, so it wouldn’t affect the team’s cap flexibility in the long term.

The Christmas Day meeting between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers didn’t quite live up to the hype. The Lakers held control for much of the game and eventually won, 92-83. Kevin Garnett (22 points) and Paul Pierce (20 points) played well, but the rest of the Celtics combined to shoot just 18 of 50 (36%) from the field. Meanwhile, the Lakers shot 40% from long range, anchored by uncharacteristic accuracy from Luke Walton and Lamar Odom, who were both 2-3 from long range.

But tonight’s game will be in Boston and the Lakers are coming off a tough game last night in Toronto, which is why the Celtics are favored by seven points. Since losing four straight games in early January, the C’s are riding a 12-game winning streak. The Lakers have won eight of their last nine games, but will be without Andrew Bynum, who is going to miss 8-12 weeks with a torn MCL.

L.A. will be looking for revenge. The last time the Lakers visited Boston was for Game 6 of the 2008 Finals, when they were summarily trounced by the Celtics, 131-92.

The game is on TNT tonight at 8 PM ET.