2003-2004 NBA Season (1 Viewer)

[Chris Farmer]

Looks like my comments earlier about chemistry became relevant sooner then I expected. This could rip the Lakers apart. The Lakers cannot beat the Spurs or the Kings without Shaq and Kobe both, they're good but not that good. Right now I'd say the Spurs have the better bench, with a Lakers slight advantage in starting 5 (Shaq>>Nesterovich, Duncan>>Malone, Bowen=Brown, Kobe>Ginobilli, Parker slight edge over Payton). Kings match up similarly if they're healthy. This could get very interesting to watch.

 

[Steve_Tk]

Anyone enjoy those comments from Shaq after the game?

Mailman + Glove + Superman = Trouble.

My opening night predictions, Hawks win it all in 6.

 

[Lew Crippen]

There may be some different players, but it is the same old story for the Mavs when they play the Lakers in L.A.. :frowning:

 

[Hunter P]

Geez, what happened to this high powered offense that Dallas was supposed to bring to the table? Looks like more of the same for Dallas this year. They will compile a good regular season record but fail to win the statement games.

Ugly game on the Suns/Spurs. You can tell that everyone is still rusty. Still, tough loss for the Suns to begin the season.

As for the Laker chemistry, the Kobe/Shaq feud was even worse a few years ago. Back then it even came to blows. If I recall, Shaq slapped Kobe a couple of times. This year is more public however.

 

[Carlo_M]

Yeah, as much as I'd like to take the positives from last night's Laker game, it was against Dallas who (unbeknownst to me) hadn't won in L.A. since 1990. I knew it was a long time, but jeez...

Anyway, one thing that may have us Laker fans hopeful:

Last year Kobe and Shaq would account for ~60% of the scoring (i.e. 58 points out of 90 points total for the team).

Last night Kobe didn't play and Shaq only scored 16 points, yet the team scored 109, with all five starters between 15-21 points.

Again, granted it was against "Allas" (no "D") but it was still nice to see a balanced box score for the first time since the Showtime era.

 

[Hunter P]

I forgot to mention that they still managed to win the title that year. I wouldn't put too much into the chemistry argument.

But here's crossing the fingers that I'm wrong!

Well, I have only three more hours until I'm sitting in Arco Arena for the season opener for the Kings. I'll get to see up close how much potential this LeBron guy has. I still don't understand the hype but then again I didn't see what was the big deal when Kobe and T-Mac were rooks too.:b

Be sure to watch Sportscenter highlights throughout the year for my man, Gerald Wallace. Now that Hedo is with the Spurs and Jim Jackson is with the Rockets, Wallace actually has playing time as the number one backup to Peja. That boy can fly. I saw a preseason game against the Rockets and he did an amazing fastbreak dunk. I think his head was rim high and he totally posterized some Houston player. It was the top play of the night on Sportscenter that night so maybe some of you saw it.

 

[Carlo_M]

Rick Fox had an interesting comment in the LA Times about the infighting, and I'm paraphrasing here as I don't have the paper in front of me, but he basically said:

For three years they've been fighting and we won championships. Last year we had a lovefest and we lost the championship. I'm okay with it.

 

[Neil M]

The Pistons lost a close one tonight. Ben Wallace had a phenomenal game. 16 pts., 17 reb, 6 blocks, and 5 steals. I don't think the team can ask him to do any more. Hamilton and Billups need to play alot better. They were a combined 6-31. This should be one great season of NBA basketball.

 

[Steve_Tk]

Like ESPN said, only 5 of the last 19 championship winners lost their first game. So it looks like you can already scratch Atlanta off the list, no way they can get out of this 0-1 hole.

And Lebron looked...uh....good. I'm impressed. He didn't show boat or act like God. He talked intelligently after the game. Keep your nose clean and don't act like you are God's gift to the NBA, like other players, and you can do good for the NBA. That's the biggest problem I have with the NBA now, players that think they are all that. Jordan didn't act like that, he was humble. Now everyone thinks they are just a bunch of bad asses and we need to kiss their feet.

 

[Chris]

I was pretty impressed with Lebron's play; a little surprised too. I think he's got a ways to go, but the best thing he's got going for him is that he doesn't come off as a loudmouth, and he -passes the dang ball-. He only ended up with 9 assists, but he distributed the ball around well enough that they had opportunities to find an open man. Cleaveland has a long way to go; but it helps. It's a lot better then watching people run down the floor, pull up, shoot, miss, next. Which has become one of my big gripes about the modern NBA

 

[Shane Martin]

The jury is out on Lebron but he looked pretty dang good last night. If he maintains this, He'll be a great one.

 

[Patrick Sun]

If the Cavs get some more pieces around LeBron, he'll be able to live up to most of the hype. We'll see if he hits the wall around game 30 in a 82 game season.

 

[Jack Fanning]

The jury is out on Lebron but he looked pretty dang good last night. If he maintains this, He'll be a great one.

Yep, he looked pretty good alright. Last night he played against a team (Kings) that plays no defense, we'll see how he does tonight when he is matched up with Penny Hardaway and/or Shawn Marion, who are MUCH better defenders.

 

[Hunter P]

Very easy and popular thing to say. Just because the Mavs patterned themselves after the Kings doesn't mean that the Kings play D like them. Sure, the Kings do get lazy sometimes but they are a great defensive team...when it interests them. Just because their point average is over 100 pts doesn't mean that they play NO defense.

Last night was a good example of what the Kings do right and do wrong. They have the ability to blow teams off the floor in the blink of an eye. That is usually a bad thing if the game becomes too easy for them. They start getting complacent. It happened last night when they were up by 19 with like a 70% shooting percentage.

Once the Cavs took the lead two minutes into the fourth, the Kings woke up and put the clamps down on D. The Cavs scored only 7 pts in the last 10 minutes of the game. Still want to contend that the Kings play "no defense"?

And don't get fooled by the high scores in the West. We don't play grind it down B-Ball like the East. The West can actually hit a jump shot and they like to fast break. Made shots taken early into the shot clock means more opportunities for both teams to score. If a score is 120-100 then you shouldn't assume that the winning team played poor D because they let their opponent score 100.

Typical score in an Eastern conf game:
Walk the ball up the floor. Dribble another 10 seconds off the clock. Finally begin to run a play. Force an awkward shot through two defenders, barely grazing the rim just as the shot clock buzzes. Scramble for a while until you finally get the offensive rebound. Run the shot clock down to 10 seconds again. Brick. Missed tip-in. Missed tip-in. BASKET! SCORE TWO! YIPPEE!

(BTW, I'm not really offended with the "no D" talk. I'm just having fun with it. But my above views on the matter are true. )

 

[Hunter P]

My take LeBron after attending last night's game.

OK, maybe this guy deserves most (not all) the hype after all. I have to keep reminding myself that he's only 19 and he "polished" his game playing high schoolers. This is my first good look at him since I generally avoided the gushing coverage by ESPN and the like over the last year.

He already has great ability to finish around the basket. He made a lot of difficult layups in traffic. He also hit some tough jumpers. Everyone raves about his passing skills and he does have it. I don't think he made one bad pass all night. Luckily for him, his teammates were making the most of it by hitting their jumpers.

What I was most surprised to see was how he carried himself in the game and during timeouts. You can tell by the body language that the team as already accepted him as their leader. How players like Ricky Davis and Darius Miles were so willing to hand over the reins to a rookie, I'll never know.

Also the refs even bought into the hype. He was getting MJ-type calls that you would expect only for 10-year vets. I have never seen anything like it before. None of today's superstars were treated with this much respect in their rookie year.

To LeBron's credit, despite how much ESPN wanted to make it the LeBron-show, he tried to play a team game. He didn't try to force things and take every shot. In fact he almost went the whole second quarter without an attempt. He was just content to feed the post or drive and dish.

He won me over with his play last night. I just wish the media would lay off a bit and not lick his ass every two seconds. I almost think they will show a hockey highlight and somehow find a way to insert LeBron into the conversation.

As for the Cavs overall, I like their nucleus. Legit center and a lot of athletes. These boys can jump up quick. The NBA is all about matchups. The Kings always have trouble with quick jumping teams who like to crash the boards. Makes them give up too many rebounds. The Spurs/Suns showed in last year's playoffs how certain teams can make for difficult matchups.

 

[Carlo_M]

In most sports I'm a defensive freak (and with UCLA football, it's all we have).

But I have to agree, in the NBA it is not a case of the West not having D and the East having it. What is often confused for D in the East is actually LACK OF "O". Witness how the East teams grind each other to 78-76 epics, and then get blown out by West teams 100-76. And for the last few years, everyone's basically said the Western Conference Finals is the de facto NBA Finals, and I've seen nothing to contradict that.

I make fun of Allas because they have no "D" but Sacramento definitely can play D, it's just as Hunter said, whether they are committed enough to do it. I'm sure that a combination of the fact that it was the first game, and everyone wanted to see what LeBron could do, that contributed to the lack of hard-nosed D that occurred in that game. Trust me though, when the regular season starts winding down and the playoffs start, the best "entire game" (as in, both good offense and good defense) will be played again by Western Conference teams.

 

[MickeS]

What is it with sports and wordplay that works so well?

I've never followed the NBA before last year, but after months and months of playing NBA Live 2003 on the computer (great cross promotion there), I'm really into it, more than I've ever been into any other sport (except college basketball). I hope I can contribute more to this little thread.

 

[Lew Crippen]

None of today's superstars were treated with this much respect in their rookie year.

IIRC, Bird and Magic got a lot of calls as rookies.

 

[Hunter P]

Bleh.

I just saw the recording of last night's TV broadcast and it was 90% LeBron. I'm glad I got to see the unfiltered version.

But damn, I am surprised that the announcers even were aware that LJ had teammates and was playing against another team. Every other word out of their mouths was LeBron.

"LeBron with the steal. LeBron passes to LeBron. LeBron does a cross-over LeBron. He LeBrons to the rim. The LeBron is in. The score is now LeBron to LeBron. LeBron LeBron LeBron LeBron LeBron LeBron...."


We didn't get to see it much on the TV broadcast they were too busy showing replays of some LeBron play that happened half an hour ago or talking to Moses Malone for what seemed like 20 minutes while a game was going on. However, I did watch the body language of the team during timeouts and that's why I got that impression. I would be interested to see if you get the same impression if he comes to your town. To quote Chuck Barkley's book, "I might be wrong but I doubt it."

 

[Chris]

One thing though; for a Rook he played pretty unselfish; but better then that, I have to give a lot of credit for his defense; he played hard, got some good steals for quick points.. give him a few years; but that sense of the court that he has, kind of like Magic, Bird, Stockton.. that's something you either have or don't, and he's got it.