Category: NBA (Page 569 of 595)

I thought it might go like this.

The top four seeds in the West are set. San Antonio has clinched the #1 seed and home court advantage throughout the conference playoffs. Phoenix is the #2 seed, winning the Pacific Division for the second consecutive year. Denver is tops in the Northwest and has clinched the #3 seed. That leaves the Mavericks, the second best team in the conference and the third best in the league, as the #4 seed.

Unfortunately, the division winners are given the top three seeds in each conference, with the next best team getting that #4 slot. In this case, the Mavs have six more wins than Phoenix and 16 more than Denver, but are seeded below them. This means that the Mavs will likely face San Antonio in the second round of the playoffs if they beat the #5 seed in the first round.

So who will they play? Well, that’s another problem. Right now, the Grizzlies are the #5 seed with a 47-33 record. The Clippers are one game behind them at 46-34, holding down the coveted sixth seed. Oh yeah, the Clippers and Grizzlies play tonight. If the Clippers lose, they’ll wrap up the sixth seed, but if they win, it will come down to the season finale for each team on Wednesday.

Because of this quirky seeding system, the Clippers and Grizzlies are playing in a game tonight that both teams would be better off losing. The #6 seed gets the Nuggets while the #5 seed has to play Dallas. If both seeds manage to win, the #6 seed will get the Suns or Lakers in the second round, while the #5 seed will likely play San Antonio.

As the LA Times put it, this is a no-win situation. I’ve said it before, but anytime you put a team in a position where losing on purpose helps them, you’ve got a problem. The NBA should guarantee division winners a seed in the top four and home court in the first round. That would give Dallas the #2 seed and we wouldn’t have games like the Clippers/Grizzlies matchup tonight. I’m going to tune in just to see what happens. Players never want to lose, but will they put forth maximum effort knowing that a playoff route through Dallas and San Antonio awaits the victor?

I doubt it. You better get on this one, David Stern.

A source close to Adam Morrison says he’s going pro and that he will announce his intentions on Wednesday. These “source” reports are only accurate about 80% of the time, so it’s not a done deal until Morrison announces.

ESPN has Morrison going #5 in their mock draft, but it’s hard to say where players will go without assigning draft picks to particular teams. They still have Joakim Noah and Al Horford in their mock, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense considering the duo announced that they are staying another year. The mock at NBADraft.net has Morrison going third to the Bobcats.

It should be an interesting draft. Right now, there isn’t a consensus #1 pick, so many of the teams will be focusing on the player that best fits their needs. Once the lottery picks are set, we should have a better idea where players will be drafted.

The Orlando Magic will not make the playoffs this year. After a 20-40 start, it was almost impossible for them to play in the postseason. But look at what the Magic have done since then:

1. They are 16-4 over their last 20. This includes a blowout win over the Cavs, a nine-point wins over Dallas and Miami, a 12-point win over San Antonio, and a victory against Detroit.

2. Dwight Howard, despite having maybe the goofiest player picture in the league, has averaged 17 points and 14 boards in the last 10 games. He is a stud and will soon be the league’s best power forward.

3. Over the same span, Jameer Nelson has averaged 18 points and five assists on .508 shooting from the field.

4. Hedo Turkoglu, a former Sacramento castoff, has averaged 19 points (on .550 shooting), five rebounds and three assists in the last ten games.

5. Darko Milicic, who came over in a trade with Detroit, has shown signs of life, averaging nine points, four boards and two blocks over the same period.

Watch out for the Magic…next year.

The criteria for the MVP award in the NBA: Is it the best overall player? Is it the best player on the best team? Is it the player who averages the most points? These three questions will yield you three different answers. Nobody seems to know exactly how the award is defined but everyone has an opinion as to who the MVP should be. This season the award can really be narrowed down to four candidates in my opinion: Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James, with my vote going for the latter.

Kobe Bryant, the NBA scoring leader (35 pts/g), is a tremendous talent but leads the NBA in shots attempted and has the lowest field goal percentage of any of the four above candidates. Scoring 81 points in a game is great but unlike Nash and James, Kobe fails to make anyone on his team better. He jacks up shot after shot and you can’t give the award to the scoring leader when he brings nothing else to the table.

Steve Nash, last year’s MVP winner, is averaging 19 points and 10 assists on a team without their big man, Amare Stoudemire. Nash can carve up a defense as good as any point guard in the league and can create for his teammates, no doubt. Some may say Nash is the obvious choice because he’s putting up his numbers in the absence of Stoudemire. But don’t forget, another possible darkhorse MVP candidate, Shawn Marion, runs alongside him in Phoenix, taking some of the load off Nash.

Dirk Nowitzki has put up great numbers on one of the best teams in the league but falls a little short in my opinion.

And then there’s the man-child known as LeBron James. The fact that he’s putting up 31, 7, and 6.6 as a 21-year-old is a little disgusting to think about in and of itself. The guy has unbelievable individual numbers for a player his age. If that alone isn’t enough to convince you that LeBron should be the 2006 MVP, consider the fact that the Cavaliers have locked up the fourth seed in the playoffs and LeBron has the chance to lead his team to a 50-win season without having his right hand man Larry Hughes for half the season. LeBron is a physical freak who can get to the basket at will. Sure, he could be like Kobe and put up nearly 30 shots a game but he chooses not to because he loves getting everyone else on his team involved. He has really grown into the role of team leader this season and has not shied away from pressure situations. Answering his critics, he has finally proven that he can knock down game-winning shots as well as set them up for other teammates (Damon Jones, Flip Murray). LeBron has changed the face of the NBA and has resurrected the city of Cleveland. And, oh yeah, he’s only 21. LBJ for MVP!