Author: John Paulsen (Page 809 of 937)

Nice win by the Spurs tonight. The Suns led the entire game, but San Antonio fought back and eventually led by four before the Suns forced overtime. In OT, the Spurs took control and came away with a 111-106 win. Tony Parker and Tim Duncan led the Spurs with 29 and 26 points, respectively, while new center Fabricio Oberto scored 22 on perfect 11-11 shooting. Amare Stoudemire looked pretty good (16/6) before fouling out in the second half.

The Blazers beat the Lakers, 101-90, behind 36/10 from Zach Randolph. This guy is on fire.

The Nuggets lost at home to the Knicks, 109-107. Ugh. The Jazz are officially the favorite to win the Northwest.

The best line of the night: Ryan Gomes of the Celtics…10 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists. Congrats, Ryan!

Finally, the Mavs dropped to 0-4 with a 103-85 thumping at the hands of the Clippers. Jerry Stackhouse is no Josh Howard. (Howard will miss the next two weeks with a sprained ankle.)

…Channing Frye?
Frye was named to the All-Rookie team last season despite getting irregular minutes as part of the ongoing circus under ringleader Larry Brown. He averaged 11.8 points and 5.7 rebounds last year, and seemed primed for a breakout season with a starting spot locked up and Isiah Thomas at the helm. But his performance has been miserable thus far. He’s averaging 3.5 points and 4.5 rebounds (in about the same number of minutes) while shooting just 21.9% from the field. While we’re talking about the Knicks, what’s the deal with Q-Rich? After a turbulent summer, it wasn’t clear how Richardson would fit in with the Marbury/Francis/Thomas triangle, but here he is, leading the team in points, threes and minutes.

…the Mavericks’ 0-3 start?
OK, Dallas, I’ll forgive a 97-91 loss to the Spurs in your home opener. San Antonio is probably the best team in the league when all their pieces are healthy, and you almost won the game. Then you go to Houston and lose, 107-76, to the Rockets. Now I’m starting to get worried. Two days later you return home for a sure win against the Warriors, but you find a way to lose, 107-104, to your old coach. I’m officially concerned. Your stud isn’t the problem – Dirk Nowitzki is playing pretty well, averaging 23.7 points and 8.7 boards while shooting a terrific 54.2% from the field. Jason Terry, where has your touch gone? You’re shooting 36.4% from the floor. Is that what Mark Cuban paid for?

…Sam Cassell?
All summer we heard about how Shaun Livingston was the most improved player in Clippers camp and how this was the year that he was going to take the keys from Cassell. It still may happen – and Cassell’s injury history might open the door – but right now Cassell is leading the team in scoring with 22.8 points per game. His rebounds and assists are about the same…who would you want on the floor in crunch time?

…the Lakers 4-1 start?
Lamar Odom is picking up where he left off last season, and with improved play of Luke Walton and Andrew Bynum, the Lakers suddenly have a team. Bynum is making a strong case to be the Lakers’ starting center for the next several years, with or without a healthy Kwame Brown. If Kobe can return without ruining the team’s chemistry, the Lakers might make a run in the Pacific.

…Zach Randolph?
Portland is 2-2, which is about as many wins as I thought they’d get in November. Randolph has been a beast, averaging 26.0 points and 10.2 rebounds per contest. He’s been a double-double guy before, but he’s never been as accurate from the field (51.4%) or from the stripe (91.4%). If he keeps these numbers up and the Blazers win a few more games, he’ll make the All-Star team. Is that even possible?

“Zero Tolerance”

In the preseason, the NBA changed the way its officials call the game. Players can no longer question a call with emotion, or else they’ll be given a technical foul. This rule is not new, but the fact that the refs are using a “zero tolerance” guideline is causing problems for players. In Detroit’s first game, Rasheed Wallace was ejected after garnering two technicals in 23 minutes (without scoring a single point). Thus far this season, there have been 0.0025 technicals per minute, which is about 83% ahead of last year’s rate. So almost twice as many technicals are being called as compared to last season.

I love this rule. Over the past several years, the NBA had become a gripe-fest. One player or another had something to say to the officials after just about every single call, and it bogged the game down. You’ll notice that there aren’t very many complaints from coaches; they are perfectly happy with the rule, because it forces players to get back on defense instead of complaining to the official. Players simply need to adjust to the rule. When a call goes against them, there’s no use in showing frustration towards the official. You can turn your back and bitch all you want, but if you show up the ref, you’re going to get a tech.

Certainly players should be able to speak with the officials, to question a call in an adult manner. Maybe they’ll learn something that way. But this should be done at a time out or during free throws so as to not interrupt the flow of the game.

Palming and Traveling

There are no stats I know of to substantiate this, but the league seems to be cracking down on palming (carrying) the ball and, to a lesser extent, traveling. The offensive player gains such an advantage when they are able to carry the ball from one side of their body to the other, so it’s simply not fair to let it slide. I doubt we’ll see a lot of these calls in the fourth quarters of close games, but the hope is that if they can clean it up for 40 minutes, the players won’t abuse the rule for the final eight.

The New Ball

The most publicized change this offseason was the use of a new ball. Shaquille O’Neal railed on the new ball in a press conference saying, “…to change it now, whoever that person is needs his college degree revoked. It’s a terrible decision.” He went on to say that he looks for “shooting percentages to be way down and turnovers way up.”

So after a week’s worth of games, what’s the effect? Well, field goal shooting is actually up a smidgeon, from 45.4% last season to 45.5% this season. Free throw accuracy is down from 74.5% to 73.2%, but both of these changes are well within the margin of error for such a small sample size from this season. Turnovers per minute are up 16% from 0.057 last season to 0.066 this season. But part of this increase can be attributed to the stronger emphasis on palming and traveling, so Shaq can’t blame it all on the new ball.