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Kobe Bryant continues to lead all Western Conference players in the fourth All-Star Balloting returns.
Teammate Pau Gasol remains sixth among forwards, trailing Tim Duncan, Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, Ron Artest and Dirk Nowitzki. Click here to make a final push for Pau. VOTE NOW!!!
Click below the jump to see the full returns.
As they raced to a 27-2 record to start their title defense, it was hard to find a negative thing to say about the Boston Celtics. If anything, it was starting to become obvious that their bench wasn’t producing with any kind of regularity, but that simply wasn’t an issue because the starters were so effective.
It’s an issue now.
First came the Christmas Day game in L.A., from which the Lakers would emerge with a hard fought, 92-83 victory that came down to the final two minutes. Boston got nothing from its bench in that game, but still looked very good, nothing like a team that would go on to lose four more games in the next two weeks.
But lose they did, to Golden State (99-89), Portland minus Brandon Roy (91-86), the Knicks (100-88) and finally, Charlotte in overtime (114-106) 30 minutes before L.A. braced to face New Orleans at home. That’s not exactly the cream of the NBA’s crop. Boston, now 29-7, next faces the Houston Rockets at home before traveling to Cleveland for an Eastern Conference showdown on Friday evening.
What can we learn from Boston’s post X-Mas struggles? Well, perhaps more than anything else, it’s what we saw before - a lack of depth - finally catching up to a team that was still playing with enormous fire coming off its first NBA title since the 1980s.
Another point might be that few teams were up to the challenge put forth by the defending champs, as the Celtics seemed to win many games before they even stepped onto the floor. But after the Lakers stopped their 19-game winning streak, and Golden State put up a W for the not-so-goods, perhaps other teams were emboldened.
Surely it’s hard to argue with this statement: Boston needs to add a player or two. But who’s out there? James Posey defected to New Orleans; P.J. Brown said he’s not coming out of retirement; Stephon Marbury’s still under contract with the Knicks; and the Celtics don’t have many assets to trade.
Yet for L.A., the sole focus right now - as Phil Jackson mentioned in his pregame talk - needs to be the opponent of the night, not a mid-season swoon from the Celtics … Even if it’s fun for Lakers fans to watch.
From the NBA:
The Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade and the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant today were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month presented by Kia Motors, respectively, for games played during the month of December.
Bryant helped the Lakers to an 11-4 record in December, which tied with Dallas and San Antonio as the best Western Conference mark for the month. Bryant’s 28.2 ppg was second in the league to Wade’s 29.2 ppg. Scoring in double figures in all 15 of the Lakers’ contests, Bryant tallied 30-plus points five times and eclipsed the 40-point plateau once. Bryant and the Lakers were a perfect 7-0 at Staples Center during December, winning their home games by an average of 9.6 ppg.
A few highlights:
Dec. 3: @ Philadelphia: Recorded 32 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals in a 114-102 win over the 76ers.
Dec. 20: @ Orlando: Tallied a season-high 41 points, and added eight rebounds and three assists in the Lakers’ 106-103 loss at Orlando.
Dec. 28: vs. Golden State: Registered 31 points, three rebounds, four assists and four steals in a 130-113 win over the Warriors.
Other nominees for Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month presented by Kia Motors were Atlanta’s Joe Johnson, Charlotte’s Emeka Okafor, Cleveland’s LeBron James, Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, Houston’s Yao Ming, New Jersey’s Devin Harris, New Orleans’ Chris Paul, Orlando’s Jameer
Nelson, Phoenix’s Amar’e Stoudemire and Portland’s Brandon Roy.
Kobe Bryant continues to lead all Western Conference players in the latest balloting returns for the 2009 NBA All-Star game. Rockets center Yao Ming holds onto the second place spot, but trails Bryant by more than a hundred-thousand votes. Currently joining them in the starting lineup are Tim Duncan, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tracy McGrady.
Bryant’s Lakers teammates Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum rank fifth and third respectively at their positions. With just a couple weeks of voting left, their hopes of starting appear slim. All-Star starters will be announced on January 22nd, prior to that evenings TNT double header featuring the Lakers vs. Wizards on the back end. The rest of the squad is the reserves are slected by a vote among the head coaches of each squad’s particular conference.
According to Wikipedia:
The coaches who currently lead the team with the most wins in their conference through the Sunday two weeks before the game coach their respective conferences.
The Lakers currently hold a five-game lead in the Western Conference so there is a good chance that our very own Phil Jackson could be manning the sidelines for the West.
Full results below the jump.
My name is Mike Trudell, and I’m a fantasy basketball addict (I don’t need to attend meetings, do I?).
As a point of fact, I love fantasy hoops about as much as …
A) Teenage girls love the Jonas Brothers
B) Teenage boys love Megan Fox
C) Bill Belichick loves cheating
D) Tom Cruise loves Scientology
E) Nike stock loves Michael Jordan
So, my love affair with sports numbers is why I get frustrated (to quite frustrated) when I see that Dwight Howard is No. 35 on ESPN’s “Player Rater.”
No. 35? Really!!!??
Check me out: Howard is leading the league in rebounding (13.6) and blocked shots (3.68) by a long shot. He’s ninth in field goal percentage (55.1) and 24th in scoring (19.9). He’s missed exactly two games in his four-plus year career (both this season due to a left knee tweak) and is a mortal lock to put up big numbers every night because he’s twice as athletic as anyone his size … and very few boast his size in the first place.
So wait … What are we missing? Oh yeah. He’s a big-time clanker.
One of the NBA’s worst ever free throw shooters, Howards hits only 56.5 percent of his league-high 11.3 attempts, which can admittedly cause you to lose the free throw category each week (unless you know how to properly compensate). Because of the way ESPN’s rankings system works, Howard’s charity bricks drop him all the way down to 35th in the rater.
Basically, ESPN’s player rater assigns an exact +/- number in each of eight categories (points, assists, steals, blocks, rebounds, FT%, FG%, 3PM) based on how one compares to the rest of the players in the league. So Howard earns a ridiculous +6.52 for blocks*, by far the highest of any category (CP3 gets a 5.11 for assists, the next highest), but his free throw number (-6.8) is also the lowest number in any category, and completely eviscerates his blocks, while de-emphasizing his FG%, points and boards.
*Only three other players (Marcus Camby, Chris Anderson and Ronny Turiaf, the latter two who don’t play much) average over two blocks, making Howard’s swats even more valuable than, say, Dwyane Wade’s 28.9 points (since 13 other players average over 22 points).
Is that fair? No way. Let’s continue…
If you drafted Howard at No. 35 overall in your fantasy league this year, and you’re not a moron with the rest of your squad, you are probably winning your league. That suggests that the rater is off a bit, right? After all, Howard is a rare player who significantly helps you in four categories, just like ‘Bron, Wade and Paul and really no one else. With Dwight on your team, even if you’re punting free throws - which you don’t necessarily have to do - you’re most likely going to win blocks, you have an excellent chance in rebounding and field goal percentage and you even get 20 extra points per game. He won’t help you much in assists, steals or threes (duh), but his massive production in those other categories cannot be matched by any other player, even LeBron. Furthermore, if you’re smart, you can put more point guards and point forwards on your roster to help you with the categories Howard doesn’t excel in, while letting Dwight do the work of two centers. No, seriously. Look at this:
Taking out the shooting categories (we know Dwight has the edge in FG and a deficit in FT), here are Howard’s numbers compared to Rasheed Wallace and Al Horford’s numbers … combined.
Dwight Howard: 19.9 points, 13.6 boards, 3.7 blocks, 0.9 steals, 1.4 assists
Wallace and Horford: 23.3 points, 16.2 boards, 3.2 blocks, 1.6 steals, 4.3 assists
While ‘Sheed’s 1.9 threes are a factor as well, it’s pretty telling that it takes two very good players to just surpass the Player Rater’s 35th best guy.
If someone can please explain to me how missing free throws (again, one out of nine categories) can push a player down about 32 spots in the fantasy rankings (Nene and Jason Terry are 17th and 18th, OK!), I’d LOVE to hear it. I mean, a solid all-around player like Joe Johnson (11th on the PR) doesn’t have one number below or above 3.0, and has a minus only in the turnover category, so his 10.84 more than handles Howard’s 7.95
OK, time to bounce … I need to go frantically put together trade propositions for Howard in all three of my leagues.
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The second All-Star ballot returns are in and the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant still leads the Western Conference in overall votes. Bryant’s 1,280,912 votes bested Houston big man Yao Ming, who is second with 1,114,709 votes.
The current starting five is rounded out by Tim Duncan and Amar’e Stoudemire at Forward, with Tracy McGrady joing Kobe in the backcourt.
Even though his play remains stellar, forward Pau Gasol was surpassed by Houston’s Ron Artest and now sits in fifth place among Western Conference forwards.
Click below to see the full standings:
Continue reading ‘Kobe Still Leading West’
Banished Knicks guard Stephon Marbury has been training out in LA the past couple of weeks and decided to take the opportunity to come see a basketball game tonight. It just happened to involve the team that pays him and, according to the NY Post story linked above, has asked him to stay away.
Marbury conducted a makeshift halftime press conference near his courtside seat, kitty corner to the Knicks bench, with the assembled New York and LA print media. Stephon talked about what he’s been up to and what his plans are for the rest of the season. Take a listen below.
A special thanks to Beto Duran of ESPN Radio 710 for the audio. Click here to check out his Blog.
(Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images)
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The NBA’s 58th All-Star Game is all set to be played in Phoenix on Sunday, Feb. 15. All it needs is some players.
One will surely be Kobe Bryant, who after the first ballot returns leads all Western Conference players with 719,252 votes, followed by Yao Ming’s 529,290. That’s not close. Chris Paul follows Bryant at the guard position with 406,220 votes, while Tim Duncan (442,203) and Amar’e Stoudemire (370,470) lead Western Conference forwards. Pau Gasol ranks fifth among forwards with 260,374 votes. At center, Shaquille O’Neal (227,273) trails Yao, and is followed by Mehmet Okur (162,139) and then Andrew Bynum (155,689).
Let’s take a look at the whole ballot, and then summarize the positioning of each Lakers player:
2009 Western Conference All-Star Balloting - No. 1
Forwards: Tim Duncan (SA) 442,203; Amar’e Stoudemire (Pho) 370,470; Carmelo Anthony (Den) 327,233; Dirk Nowitzki (Dal) 261,952; Pau Gasol (LAL) 260,374; Ron Artest (Hou) 214,063; Bruce Bowen (SA) 121,739; Shane Battier (Hou) 115,981; Josh Howard (Dal) 113,456; Luis Scola (Hou) 82,344; Lamar Odom (LAL) 78,422.
Guards: Kobe Bryant (LAL) 719,252; Chris Paul (NO) 406,220; Tracy McGrady (332,222); Manu Ginobili (SA) 166,981; Jason Kidd (Dal) 162,286; Tony Parker (SA) 161,638; Steve Nash (Pho) 142,410; Jason Terry (Dal) 105,345; Chauncey Billups (Den) 87,172; Brandon Roy (Por) 78,071; Rafer Alston (Hou) 73,613.
Centers: Yao Ming (Hou) 529,290; Shaquille O’Neal (Pho) 227,273; Mehmet Okur (Utah) 162,139; Andrew Bynum (LAL) 155,689; Greg Oden (Por) 71,366; Andris Biedrins (GS) 65,496; Al Jefferson (Minn) 46,242; Tyson Chandler (NO) 39,467; Marcus Camby (LAC) 25,824; Chris Kaman (LAC) 9,104; Brad Miller (Sac) 6,892.
Kobe Bryant
Kobe’s huge lead in the Western Conference should only grow as the season goes on. If Kobe isn’t voted in as a starter for the 11th time in his career (every year but his rookie season and there was no game in 1999), then “The Office” is a terrible show that’s never funny and has bad actors. We don’t even need to bother discussing this.
Pau Gasol
Pau’s case is a bit more interesting. First of all, I’ll argue that he should be an All-Star. He’s very clearly been the second-best player on an 18-3 team, and has the numbers to back it up: 18.0 points (20th in the West); 9.2 rebounds (7th); 3.4 assists; 0.95 blocks; and, perhaps most impressively, 57.1 field goal shooting, which ranks fourth in the league behind three players that score mostly on dunks and layups (Nene, Shaq and Emeka Okafor). While Pau is unlikely to be voted in as a starter ahead of Duncan, Amare, ‘Melo or Dirk, one would think that the NBA’s coaches value and respect Gasol’s game enough to put him on the squad. Even if the just mentioned four players all get into the game, it’s hard to think that the coaches would rather have Artest, Bowen, Battier, Howard or Scola, who trail Gasol in votes. A few other players not yet cracking the vote minimum are Carlos Boozer (who’s been hurt); David West, who was an All-Star last season; Zach Randolph, who - no matter what you say about him - is averaging 20 and 11; LaMarcus Aldridge; and Al Jefferson, who’s actually listed as a center but is averaging 21 and 10 and could get in as a forward/center if Minnesota wins a few more games. Yet and still, do you think any of those players are more deserving than Pau? Me either.
Andrew Bynum
Unless Sun Yue makes a few calls to China on Bynum’s behalf, it’ll be quite difficult to jump Yao as the West’s starter at center. But there’s a good argument for Bynum being the West’s No. 2 center, particularly when we consider that his numbers should keep improving all the way up to the All-Star Game. Right now, he’s averaging 13.3 points, 8.9 boards (8th in the West), 1.95 blocks (7th in the NBA) and is shooting 56 percent from the floor (9th in the NBA). Andris Biedrins is putting up impressive numbers (15.2 points, 12.4 rebounds) but is on a bad team, just like Al Jefferson. Were Bynum the focal point of a team’s offense (like Al) or its only big man (like Biedrins), his numbers would probably rise to their level. As for the other two besides Yao ahead of ‘Drew, Shaq’s 15.4 and 8.4 are fine, but he doesn’t play the second side of back-to-backs. Okur’s numbers are right there with Shaq at 15.2 and 7.8, but the Turk is really more of a perimeter-oriented player on offense and doesn’t protect the rim on defense. Marcus Camby’s playing well, but Chris Kaman, Brad Miller, Tyson Chandler and Greg Oden shouldn’t threaten Bynum too much - it’ll be more about if Drew’s production continues to progress as it has in the last few weeks. If so, the kid’s first All-Star berth could be his reward.
Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher
While Odom’s currently the 11th player in terms of votes on the All-Star ballot, and certainly has All-Star caliber skills, he probably isn’t getting enough playing time on L.A.’s talent-laden squad to make as good of a case as other players. So with Lamar, let’s monitor his play (and minutes) heading into the next round of votes.
Fisher is the fifth Lakers player on the ballot, but with point guards like Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Tony Parker, Steve Nash, Baron Davis and now Chauncey Billups out West … Well let’s just say it’ll be tough.
The Western Conference just got a bit more interesting.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Phoenix Suns traded Raja Bell, Boris Diaw and Sean Singletary to the Charlotte Bobcats for Jason Richardson and Jared Dudley, immediately giving the Suns an athletic, three-point shooting, former back-to-back Slam Dunk champ to play alongside Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Shaquille O’Neal and Grant Hill.
Meanwhile, the New Orleans Hornets acquired a much-needed backup guard in Antonio Daniels, while sending Mike James to the Wizards; Washington also acquired former Lakers first round pick Javaris Crittenton in the deal from Memphis, and the Grizzlies received the first-round pick they’d previously sent to Washington.
At first glance, I thought the Charlotte trade might have been made for salary purposes, with Charlotte trying to get Richardson’s contract off the books heading into the 2010 free agent craze. But Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak told me that Diaw actually has four years on his deal, and Richardson three, meaning that the trade was strictly a basketball decision. Likewise, the three-team trade was about basketball, not cap clearing as we’ve seen in other situations this season.
Kupchak went on to share his opinion about both deals, explain how the trades might affect the Lakers and added his take on the Lakers 17-3 start:
Even when playing against some of the league’s worst teams, five-game winning streaks are impressive in the NBA. There are just too many talented players even on bad teams to continually win on a nightly basis, meaning that both the Lakers and Dallas Mavericks have been playing pretty good basketball of late.
Let’s take a closer look at the two five-game streaks:
As always, we’ll be at STAPLES for full pregame coverage, including a Bynum update, and on the BasketBlog live throughout the contest with our running diary. See you soon.
FROM LAKERS.com
