LeBron James makes his only trip to Madison Square Garden tonight.
For the past two seasons there has been plenty of talk about LeBron bolting his hometown of Cleveland for the bright lights of New York City.
Continue reading "LeBron Makes His Only Trip to "The Garden" Tonight"
Posted by Scott Shepherd | No comments yet
There are no moral victories in the NBA. Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins said so himself. If there were, Sunday's 133-123 loss at Denver would have qualified. The 10-point final margin is a bit misleading because the Grizzlies led by five after the opening quarter and hung around for much of the game. The Grizzlies put up 40 points in the first quarter on 77 percent shooting, which at least ensured they would not start out flat on the road as they did so many times last season. They shot the ball extremely well, finishing at 57.8% for the game. Offense is not the problem. What has hurt them in their first two losses is turnovers. They gave the ball away 20 times on Sunday and 14 times in their opener against Detroit, robbing themselves of chances to build runs. With the way they are shooting the ball right now, if they maximized their possessions, they could be undefeated or at least have played Detroit closer. Against the Nuggets, the Grizzlies just didn't play enough defense to win. The Nuggets weren't a whole lot better defensively, but the extra possessions they got allowed them to stay just far enough ahead of the Grizzlies to claim the win.
Posted by Brad Hurt | No comments yet
In the NBA these days, it seems like there is a stat for everything. We’ve got PER, offensive efficiency ratings, defensive efficiency rating, and so on and so on.
It seems like every team in the league now employs their own stat guru. And while I’m not one to question the use of all these new statistics to evaluate NBA players (I actually kinda like them), I’m old school.
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The Good
Ty Lawson
How good was he last night? I predicted the Denver Nuggets to be the third best team in the West this season, and that was assuming that Ty Lawson would play like a rookie point guard.
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O.J. Mayo's uncanny first-half performance wasn't enough to save the Memphis Grizzlies from themselves as they dropped a 100-90 decision at Denver on Sunday. It was their eighth loss in their last nine meetings with the Nuggets.
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Looming large in this matchup is the newest Nugget, Chauncey Billups. Billups, a former University of Colorado star and Denver native, replaces Allen Iverson and poses a threat to the Grizzlies as a potent offensive weapon. The Nuggets are led in scoring by Carmelo Anthony's 23 ppg average. Other key scorers include Nene and Kenyon Martin. Denver features a pretty big lineup and has some bulk inside, meaning Darko Milicic and Marc Gasol must contribute as much as possible in the post.
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