NBA Talk: Opening Night Impressions
For some reason, I've been really looking forward to this year's NBA season. Shaq going to the Cavs, Vince to the Magic, Artest to the Lakers, Sheed to the Celtics... just a lot of relatively big names moving to good teams.
So, I took some time to watch a couple of games last night, Lakers v Clippers and Celtics v Cavaliers...
Lakers v Clippers
The Good: Andrew Bynum looked like he's gained a step on his inside moves and was much more adept on the glass. Odom already was a great ball handler, and played the pivot for an injured Gasol last night. Artest was smothering on defense -- he jacked up some ugly shots, we'll see if he can get into the Laker offensive flow later in the year. Kobe was typical Kobe -- he still plays undisciplined defense. It's clear when the inside game is going then Kobe gets more lanes to work with.
The Bad: Fisher is done. He's still a smart player, but he looked like molasses out there. On the flip side, Baron Davis of the Clips also looked out of sorts.
Celtics v Cavaliers
The Good: The Celtics winning in Cleveland is pretty huge given that the Cavs only lost two games all last year. Rasheed Wallace is clearly going to be the difference maker for the Celtics this year -- no one on the Cavs could guard him and he was so disruptive on the defensive side. Wallace as a #3/#4 option will be nearly impossible for any other NBA team to match up against. LeBron James is hands down the best player in the NBA because...
The Bad: The Cavs have nobody else aside from King James who can work the offense. Mike Brown has been the Cav coach for five years now and there still is no offensive flow. Watching LeBron try to run a "one v five" offense is fascinating, but the other four have to start moving their feet. Ilgauskas and O'Neal look slow and goofy and obstruct LeBron's drives to the basket. The Cav bench is sickly shallow.
So, I took some time to watch a couple of games last night, Lakers v Clippers and Celtics v Cavaliers...
Lakers v Clippers
The Good: Andrew Bynum looked like he's gained a step on his inside moves and was much more adept on the glass. Odom already was a great ball handler, and played the pivot for an injured Gasol last night. Artest was smothering on defense -- he jacked up some ugly shots, we'll see if he can get into the Laker offensive flow later in the year. Kobe was typical Kobe -- he still plays undisciplined defense. It's clear when the inside game is going then Kobe gets more lanes to work with.
The Bad: Fisher is done. He's still a smart player, but he looked like molasses out there. On the flip side, Baron Davis of the Clips also looked out of sorts.
Celtics v Cavaliers
The Good: The Celtics winning in Cleveland is pretty huge given that the Cavs only lost two games all last year. Rasheed Wallace is clearly going to be the difference maker for the Celtics this year -- no one on the Cavs could guard him and he was so disruptive on the defensive side. Wallace as a #3/#4 option will be nearly impossible for any other NBA team to match up against. LeBron James is hands down the best player in the NBA because...
The Bad: The Cavs have nobody else aside from King James who can work the offense. Mike Brown has been the Cav coach for five years now and there still is no offensive flow. Watching LeBron try to run a "one v five" offense is fascinating, but the other four have to start moving their feet. Ilgauskas and O'Neal look slow and goofy and obstruct LeBron's drives to the basket. The Cav bench is sickly shallow.
Posted by Bootyboy on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 08:38AM
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#2 Bootyboy:
Mista Dougie wrote:
Bynum was impressive last night. Maybe we'll see an all star season out of him? Lakers are really looking smooth; definitely my pick for the championship.
I think the Lakers will be up there with the rest of the elite teams. We'll see if Fisher's dropoff can be compensated by Bynum's improvement or perhaps Farmar. My money is still on the Celtics.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 01:44PM
#1 Mista Dougie:
Bynum was impressive last night. Maybe we'll see an all star season out of him? Lakers are really looking smooth; definitely my pick for the championship.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 12:34PM