Basketball Blog

For those wondering how Boston’s newly-made “Big Three” will perform, their first exhibition game against Toronto provided a pretty accurate glimpse. KG racked up 19 points and 17 boards, the Truth chipped in 21 points, Ray-Ray shot a dismal 4-13. The gist? KG’s is pumped for his team, for one. The main thing is that the C’s can count on two of their guns for All-Star-caliber nights. That should be enough to get them at least 50 wins…

Fans in Orlando were having Grant Hill flashbacks when Rashard Lewis went down in the third quarter of the Magic’s first exhibition game. He clutched his leg, and was unable to run for the rest of the game. Magic officials said his leg cramped up. Magic fans’ stomachs probably did too…

Going with the “if it aint broke, don’t fix it” theme, San Antonio extended Bruce Bowen’s contract through the the 2009-10 season at $4 million a year. Bowen will be a spry 38 at that point. While there’s no reason to think Bowen will break down (he’s the holder of the league’s longest active streak of games both played and started at 436), the extension’s main purpose could be to reward Bowen for his contributions, as well as to keep him around long enough to groom newcomer Ime Udoka. Udoka is a defensive specialist who is money shooting threes from the corner…hmm….

Eddy Curry, he of the hurt shoulder, had reportedly dropped 20 pounds to reach the svelte weight of 275. The Knicks were undoubtedly looking forward to seeing the first decently-built version of Curry since he entered the league. Luckily, doctors said he should be ready to run (hey, at 275, he should be able to run, right?) for the season opener. Unfortunately, this puts off the Curry/Randolph experiment on hold until opening night…

The AP reported that Lakers coach Phil Jackson is “seriously considering” starting Ronny Turiaf over Luke Walton. This is one of those things that is both good and bad. It’s good because Turiaf is obviously a high-energy dude who would probably average double-figures in rebounding if given the PT. It’s bad because Walton, coming off a career year, was just rewarded with a 6-year contract extension at $5 million per. Walton said it best to the AP: “I have an interesting role on the team.”

While it’s not too far-fetched that Tayshaun Prince would lead the Pistons in scoring for a game, the fact that he did so scoring 13 points (and that the Heat’s leading scorer was Marcus Slaughter with 17 points) shows how truly meaningless preseason games are as indicators of a team’s talent…