NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog
NBA Blog: The NBA basketball news blog section of Inside Hoops
General NBA insight
This has nothing to do with basketball. It’s just one of the most amusing, popular and ridiculous general-interest stories ever.
This is a real news broadcast turned into an actual Antoine Dodson song. View it and watch the magic
ANTOINE DODSON SONG
If you have no idea what this is, the original, real Antoine Dodson news broadcast clip is here:
ORIGINAL ANTOINE DODSON NEWS REPORT
Marc Berman of the New York Post reports:
The Knicks have risen to 18th in what the coaching staff views as the most important defensive stat — points per 100 possessions. (The Knicks were 28th during their 3-8 start). The Knicks are second in the NBA in blocked shots, with Stoudemire setting a ton of toughness.
“We’re playing better team defense, we’re playing better help defense,” said Felton. “Amare getting six blocks [on Christmas] was big, just helping weak side and cleaning up. It makes me and Toney [Douglas’] job much easier pressuring the ball because we know we have guys who are going to clean things up when we make mistakes.”
The Knicks have the makings of a competent defensive club. Felton, Douglas and Turiaf breathe and sleep defense. Wilson Chandler is an active defender. Rookie Landry Fields rarely makes a mistake. Danilo Gallinari, despite some inconsistent offensive nights, has been tenacious on the other end, among the league leaders in charges drawn.
Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group reports:
|
Last year, forward Reggie Williams spent Christmas in his apartment in Sioux Falls, S.D.
In the morning, he walked through a foot of snow to buy groceries from a Wal-Mart across the street. He and roommate Leemire Goldwire, his teammate in the NBA Development League, cooked and ate Christmas dinner together. By that evening, they were glued to the couch waiting for the tipoff of the Denver-Portland game on ESPN, dreaming about the day they would get their shots in the NBA.
“It seems like just yesterday,” Williams, 24, said. “Now, I’m spending Christmas in California, in beautiful weather and about to play on national TV. My family can watch me play.”
Tonight Williams again will be waiting for the tipoff of a game involving Portland on ESPN (and CSNBA). But this time, he is playing in it. The Warriors host the Trail Blazers in the nightcap of the NBA’s five-game Christmas Day schedule.
This time last year, Williams was an overlooked star in the D-League, watching other D-Leaguers get called up to the big show ahead of him.
“My dream was to play in the NBA,” Williams said. “So for me to play on Christmas Day and on national TV, that’s a pretty big achievement.”
By Jerald L. Hoover
 |
The power of advance scouting took a turn for the worse as 29 teams didn’t get the memo on Knicks rookie Landry Fields. Mysteriously picked in the second round with the 39th pick, he wasn’t even on the radar as a potential draft candidate. And this despite averaging 22 points and 9 rebounds his senior year at Stanford University. True, the Pac-Ten Conference was rather weak this past year, but Fields has had some monster games against serious competition.
Case in point: Against the John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins-led Kentucky Wildcats, Fields notched 25 points and 12 rebounds. Albeit it was in a losing effort but as Cousins admitted, “we couldn’t do anything with him.”
A lot of NBA teams are drafting on alleged potential, and they seem to think if a person stayed for four years in college, something must be wrong. It’s that type of imprudent thinking that sets some franchises back or even gets coaches fired. Many ‘one and done’ players aren’t mentally or physically strong enough for the riggers or strategies of the NBA.
Fields, on the other hand, after spending four years in college was more NBA ready. In fact of the 38 players selected before him, only the aforementioned Wall and Cousins were in the opening Night starting lineup for their respective teams. And Cousins only started because of an injury to veteran center Samuel Dalembart. And only second-year Rookie of the Year candidate LA Clippers Blake Griffin has more double-doubles than Fields. But, Fields was able to win Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month. That feat hadn’t been done in New York since former Knick Channing Frye won it in November of 2005.
Talk about being a steal of the draft: at present Fields is the NBA’s leading rebounding guard. That’s right; all guards — not just rookies — at a rate of almost eight per game. And once he gets his jumpshot more sound (he will however chuck up a few threes per game) he’s going to be even more dangerous.
If there’s a player that Fields may be compared to, it would be Houston Rocket and former Duke Blue Devil Shane Battier. Battier also stayed in college for four years, but he played on the highly ranked Duke team and was much more of a high profile player in college. But, his impact as a rookie wasn’t as high as Fields’ is at this point.
Fields should keep improving, and barring health issues he should be playing in this season’s NBA Rookies vs. Sophomores game during All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles. That’s not bad for a guy not even thought of by 29 teams on Draft night.
Have an opinion on the team? Share it on the New York Knicks forum.
You can follow Jerald Hoover on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jerryhoover65
Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder top the Western Conference, while Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic and LeBron James of the Miami Heat lead the Eastern Conference after the first returns of 2011 NBA All-Star Balloting presented by T-Mobile. Bryant, The Finals MVP last season, is the overall leader with 722,682 votes.
The 2011 NBA All-Star Game, which will air live at 8 p.m. ET on TNT and ESPN Radio in the U.S., and reach fans in more than 200 countries and territories in more than 40 languages, will be played at STAPLES Center in Los Angeles – on Sunday, Feb. 20, 2011.
See full NBA All-Star voting results.
Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News reports:
The Sixers have won five of their past seven games and aren’t even comparable to the team that started the season 3-13. The reasons have been many – better defense, Jodie Meeks, a slew of home games – but the biggest might be that coach Doug Collins has shortened his bench.
Benefiting from Collins’ decision are Thaddeus Young and Lou Williams. Suffering from it are Andres Nocioni, Evan Turner and Marreese Speights.
The reasoning is pretty plain and simple. Young and Williams have been terrific off the bench, both playing as well as anyone could have expected. Still, the coach agonizes over keeping his players happy.
“I’m as sensitive as anybody,” Collins said after yesterday’s practice at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. “After the game is over, I always tell [assistant coaches] to make sure everyone is OK. I know what it’s all about. I try to stay on top of it as much as I can.”
|
The San Antonio Express-News blog reports:
San Antonio’s blistering start from behind the 3-point arc could have the Spurs challenging the league record if they can maintain their current shooting pace.
The Spurs are hitting 41.4 percent of their 3-point shots. That percentage has been eclipsed by only one team in NBA history — the 1996-97 Charlotte Hornets who shot 42.8 percent.
That shooting prowess was on display Sunday afternoon against Portland, when the Spurs hit 9-for-17 from behind the arc for 52.7 percent. It marked the fifth time this season that the Spurs have hit 50 percent or better in a game behind the arc.
San Antonio started the game 7-for-10 from behind the arc, showcasing the depth in their shooting. They rank second in the league with 206 3-pointers, trailing only New York’s 227.
Have an opinion? Share it on the San Antonio Spurs forum.
Zach McCann of the Orlando Sentinel reports:
 |
Gortat, a native of Poland, didn’t even play basketball till he was almost 18.
Instead, Gortat received his hoops training on the soccer field, as he spent his youth playing goalkeeper for his competitive soccer squad. “I was probably the world’s tallest goalie,” he says.
He played soccer all of his life — like almost everyone did in Poland — and he was actually a pretty good keeper for his club team, LKS Lodz.
So when you see Gortat diving at a point guard’s ankles for a loose ball, there’s a chance he’s imagining it as a soccer ball rolling free inside the 18-yard box.
Marcin Gortat, aka the Polish Machine, aka the world’s tallest goalkeeper.
“I was always jumping and diving on the floor for two hours per day when we had soccer practice my whole life,” Gortat said. “It’s part of the game for me.”
The Indianapolis Star reports:
The Pacers, who host Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight at Conseco Fieldhouse, are having their best defensive season under coach Jim O’Brien.
They are sixth in the league in field goal defense at 43.5 percent, which O’Brien feels will be good enough to get them into the playoffs. They are seventh in the league in points allowed at 95.5 a game.
And they are second in blocks at 6.7 a game.
“We’re actually focusing on it now,” forward Danny Granger said. “We’re not scoring like we have in the past as far as points a game, but we’re putting a lot of work in on the defensive end. We’re stepping up, we’re rebounding well and doing things we haven’t done in the past.” …
Center Roy Hibbert has more of an intimidating presence in the paint because he’s quicker and doesn’t foul as much. Hibbert is sixth in the league in blocks at 2.3 a game.
Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle reports:
Entering Wednesday’s game against Houston, the Warriors were committing 23.93 fouls a game (worst in the league) and were drawing 18.79 (third from the bottom). Their entire roster had combined to make 224 free throws – similar to the combined numbers of Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook (221).
“We’ve got to figure out how to get into the penalty, because that will soften the opponents’ defense,” point guard Stephen Curry said. “Right now, they can be as aggressive as they need to be against us and not worry about sending us to the line.”
Without a dominant post player, the Warriors rely mostly on their guards to draw fouls, and that doesn’t always work. During the Lakers game Sunday, an advanced scout said he was amazed at how much contact Ellis draws compared with how few fouls he draws.