NBA Basketball Sports Fan Blog

The 2011-2012 NBA playoffs are only in their second round. Yet injuries have already put a large asterisk on whoever will be named champion this year. What’s been surprising about the injuries is not necessarily that they’re happening, but who they’re happening to. Old teams like the Celtics and Spurs have stayed relatively healthy, while younger teams like the Bulls and Heat have lost key players.

This injury saga started before the playoffs when Dwight Howard attempted to give Stan Van Gundy a piggy back (just kidding) and herniated a disk in his back. He would elect to have surgery that would cause him to miss the rest of the season.

Then came Derrick Rose whose injury was reminiscent to that of Boobie Miles from the movie Friday Night Lights. In Game 1 of their series vs. the 76ers, the Bulls led by twelve with 1:20 to go. It’s not over until it’s over. But this game was over. Rose drove to the basket to attempt to extend the lead to fourteen and fell awkwardly on his knee tearing his ACL. The Bulls were the only team that could challenge the mighty Heat so the Eastern Conference had an asterisk on it from Game 1. As if that wasn’t enough, the Bulls would go on to lose Joakim Noah to an ankle injury and then become the 5th number one seed to lose in the first round.

Then came the Knicks slew of injuries which included Iman Shumpert doing his best Rose imitation by tearing his ACL and Amar’e Stoudemire showing he is in fact capable of crashing the glass. While the Knicks posed no real threat to the Heat, they at least could have momentarily slowed them down.

Finally, two days ago Chris Bosh went down with an abdominal strain that will sideline him indefinitely. Bosh has often been referred to as the half man in Miami’s “Two and a Half Men” but his absence was clearly noticed as the Pacers beat the Heat in Bosh’s first game out.

Many fans are glad to see something bad happen to the Heat, but at least they made things exciting. Just wait until we’re watching Indiana play San Antonio in the NBA Finals.

The red hot Heat have streaked on to an impressive 8th straight win downing the Knicks in Miami. Yeah, if only that was the story. Miami would have let ‘Melo go off for 40 points, or let J.R. Smith play like he’s still in China, but there was no way the Heat would let themselves be just another victim of Linsanity. Lin had by far his worst game as a Knick, trying to solve the puzzle that was the Heat’s impenetrable defense. He finished the game shooting just 1 for 11 from the field with 8 points and just as many turnovers. Now, the comparison to Tebow makes a little more sense doesn’t it? Unfortunately, just as any other craze in sports occurs out of nowhere, people are waiting for all the hype and intrigue to crumble. Waiting for the first game that player has an off night; for all the haters to say I told you so. Loving the story of an unknown burst into superstardom, but quickly falls off the pedestal of celebrity back down to reality. We always do this. It was one game. It didn’t help that Anthony played like the 5th best Knick last night. Well, you Lin some, you lose some I guess. Tune in next week for the next installment of Linsanity…it’s not over.

The world has gone crazy with Lin-sanity! Even Knicks fans are watching the Knicks these days. Jeremy Lin has burst onto the New York scene, and his instant success has launched him into the NBA spotlight. The Knick point guard is the first player in NBA history to record at least 20 points and 6 assists and win in his first 5 games, and now holds the record for most points scored for a player in his first 5 games played. His stats and success have sent shock waves through the NBA, in the way that he’s now getting compared to Tim Tebow media craze. Well, he keeps on “Linning”. Lin was a guy who had been passed around the league, dumped and never given an opportunity until he got to NY. This is a guy who, even into the beginning of this season, was sleeping on his brother’s couch. Today it is reported that he has made New York home, and is seeking refuge from the phenomenon in a swanky apartment complex; subletting a two-bedroom apartment from former Knicks standout, David Lee. Jeremy is living the American Dream. Last night in Toronto, Lin hit a 3-pointer with just .5 seconds left of the clock to give the Knicks yet another win, and give Knicks fans something to really celebrate on February 14^th. So, for all NBA fans everywhere…Happy Va-LIN-tine’s Day!

Gearing up for the NBA draft this Thursday, I started playing around with ESPN’s NBA trade machine and found a potential trade that could improve the Knicks point guard position going forward once the Chauncey Billups- 2 year plan is over in New York.

Knicks:
Bill Walker SG- $854,389 for 1 years
&
Renaldo Balkman PF- $1,675,000 for 2 years

For

Minnesota Timberwolves:
Jonny Flynn PG- $3,192,000 for 3 Years

Analysis: David Kahn, GM of the T-Wolves, has three point guards on his bizarre NBA roster made up of former college All-Americans. With Ricky Rubio finally coming to the Timberwolves, Kahn needs to get rid of Jonny Flynn, whom he foolishly picked with the 1st round pick the Timberwolves received from the Kevin Garnett trade to Boston. Flynn was never put in a good situation to succeed with the T-Wolves. He was constantly playing with new teammates, the wrong system in Kurt Rambis’s triangle offense, bad chemistry coupled with the worse team in the NBA, and of course had to deal with Rubio waiting in the rafters to take over the starting point guard position. The Knicks would be an ideal landing spot for Flynn, who had a terrific college career at Syracuse University and would be embraced by the Garden faithful for being a hometown kid. Flynn is also a true point guard, and his distribute the ball first mentality is something the Knicks need going forward. Further, having Chuancey Billups as a mentor to Flynn could work wonders for the Knicks and could potentially make Billups even more expendable at the trading deadline next season.

Written By, Mike Durnin @ Sports Fan Blog Network

For weeks now, speculation out of New York has been that the Knicks are looking to trade up the NBA draft board to snag Jimmer Fredette out of BYU. While Fredette’s college career was a great TV watch, and his potential marketability to NY fans may be something sought after by the Knicks, it is 7’ foot-20 year old Jeremy Tyler, whom New York should be taken in the 1st round this Thursday night. Tyler made the horrendous decision to skip his senior year of high school to play pro ball in Israel, where he struggled with maturity and dealing with adversity for the first time in his life and eventually returned home after only one season. He then decided to take his talents to pro ball in Tokyo, Japan where he re-established his game and draft stock to NBA teams. Tyler possesses great size paired with even better athleticism, and is able to face up to the basket or post up. The real surrounding concerns for Tyler centers around the poor decision he made to skip out on college and the lack of maturity at this point in his life. However, the Knicks have no size in the paint, to put it lightly, and young seven-foot big men with athleticism on par to a Dwight Howard, are a rare commodity and highly coveted by all NBA teams. Fredette is a savvy sharp shooter who’s game translates to a combo guard. In the good scenario Fredette’s game could turn out to be similar to that of a Jamal Crawford or Toney Douglas. In the bad scenario Fredette’s game could mimic that of a JJ Redick or Adam Morrison. Fredette can’t play a lick of defense, which neither can the Knicks but at least the selection of Tyler would bring a big body in the middle and would be a step in the right direction. In Chad Ford’s latest mock draft he has Jeremy Tyler falling to the Celtics at no. 25, although NBA executives and GM’s believe Tyler is rising on many big board’s as a result of impressive workouts with teams over the past two weeks. The Knicks themselves invited him back for a second workout on Monday. The Celtics organization would love to add Tyler and develop him after having paid for their foolish investment of Shaquille O’Neal’s corpse in the NBA playoffs. Holding the 17th selection, the Knicks should invest in Tyler and add legitimate size to their frontcourt of Amare Stoudemire, Ronnie Turiaf, and Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks next order of business?…..Firing Mike D’Antoni.

Written by, Mike Durnin @ Sports Fan Blog Network

Down 15 points with a little over 7 minutes left in the 4th quarter, the Dallas Mavericks ended Game 2 on a 22-5 run to stun Miami Heat and even the series at one game apiece. With the game tied at 93 with 24 seconds left, the ball went exactly where everyone knew it would go — Dirk Nowitzski’s hands. A few seconds later, after Nowitzski skillfully went around Chris Bosh, Dallas had a 2 point lead, and now head home for 3 straight games with the NBA Finals all tied up.

So what was the bigger story: the Heat’s collapse or the Mavs’ incredible comeback? Or was it the inexplicable three-point contest LeBron James and Dwayne Wade decided to take part in once Miami had a commanding 4th quarter lead? Mike Bibby making a jump-shot? So many options. Here are my notes and reactions:

—Before we go any further, let’s all promise ourselves to not do what we did after Game 1 and think this series is “over” because someone won a game. The Mavs will not win this series 4-1. The Mavs won’t win this series because of this comeback. The series is tied. That’s what 1-1 means. It also means Game 3 is a huge game, but one that will be as unpredictable as who the Knicks will hire as their new team president now that Donnie Walsh is out. I just sent my resume in. You should probably do the same.

—If I take anything out of Game 2, it’s that the biggest mismatch of these NBA Finals is one that’s gotten almost no attention: Rick Carlisle vs. Eric Spoelstra. I’m no basketball expert, but I’m pretty sure the Heat were running exactly 0 offensive plays in the last 4 minutes of Game 2. It was basically get the ball to Wade or LeBron, set a bunch of crappy screens, and then have LeBron shoot a fade-away 30 footer with Shawn Marion draped all over him. On the other hand, the Mavs in the fourth quarter ran some great plays to get Dirk open, they got the ball inside, found the open shooters, all the things well coached and disciplined teams do in crunch time. And this is just when I was ready to write a “Spoelstra proves all the naysayers wrong and is actually a good coach” post. So much for that.

—Speaking of Shawn Marion (and not to take away from what Dirk did last night – the guy simply has ice water in his veins and is as determined to win as anyone I’ve seen in a long time), if I’m most happy for how well anyone is playing in these Finals it’s him. Marion has basically spent his entire career in the shadow of other players on his team, whether it was Nash and Amare in Phoenix or Wade with the Heat, and is hands down one of the most versatile and underrated players in the game. He can play anything from the 2 to the 4, rebounds defends extremely well, and is a huge part of why the Mavs are even in the NBA Finals. He’s been putting up lines like last night’s (20 points, 9-14 shooting, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block) for 10 years and still gets very little respect. So start respecting my man The Matrix.

—I’m not even close to buying the “the Heat players celebrating in the 4th quarter sparked the Mavs’ comeback.” Give me a break. Don’t get me wrong — it probably didn’t hurt. What also didn’t hurt is the Heat offense completely disappearing, the Mavs not turning the ball over like they did the first 3 quarters, Jason Terry finally making a few shots, and Dirk being Dirk. If the Heat make 1 or 2 of the shots they missed in the last 4 minutes the series would be 2-0 and everybody would be crowning the Heat as the champions of the universe. So while I can understand why some of the Mavs players would say that after the game was over, I don’t think it was what sparked their comeback. Like Dirk said in the post-game, Dallas has a bunch of veteran players that have seen everything and been in just about every situation you can be in playing the game of basketball. They’ve been down in the 4th before and have come back to win games before. Just ask Oklahoma City.

—Bosh is shooting 9 for 34 so far in the Finals… He also had a huge turnover in the last two minutes of last night’s game when the Mavs had trimmed Miami’s lead to 2. And then Nowitzski absolutely abused him to win the game. Not good. Not good at all. And I thought Bosh was the best option to guard Nowitzski… Again, not good.

That’s all I got for today. Thanks for tuning in and make sure to check back in Monday morning for some Game 3 reactions. Also, it’s getting down to the wire in terms of buying your Miami Heat or Dallas Mavericks goods and memorabilia so you can impress your friends and your girlfriend’s dad by showing them how big of a fan you are now that your team is in the Finals. So definitely get on that. Peace.

Despite not being physically fit for most of the season, Wilson Chandler quietly – he knows no other way – performed above expectations.

A painful groin injury eventually knocked him out for good in March, and now it appears that his surgically repaired left ankle also hampered the Knicks’ shooting guard/small forward. According to a team source, Chandler might need surgery to remove scar tissue from his ankle. Last June, Chandler had surgery to remove bone spurs.

No decision on Chandler will be made until after Tuesday night’s season finale against Toronto. If surgery is required, the procedure will not keep Chandler sidelined for an extended period of time.

He should be healthy well before the Knicks report back to work in late September. Chandler, a surprise first-round pick by then-team president Isiah Thomas in 2007, is a player Donnie Walsh and Mike D’Antoni agree will be a big part of the club’s future.

Click here to read the full article – By FRANK ISOLA of Ny Daily News

Benched New York Knicks guard Nate Robinson was fined $25,000 by the NBA on Monday after his agent made a trade request.


Robinson has not played in the Knicks’ last 12 games. A two-time winner of the All-Star slam dunk contest, he has played in only 12 games this season and is averaging 11 points.

Agent Aaron Goodwin recently told reporters he’d asked the Knicks to move Robinson to another team. Robinson was fined for statements detrimental to the NBA.

“Players are not permitted to make trade requests publicly and are responsible for public statements relating to them made by their representatives,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said.

Goodwin said the benching was personal, not basketball related. A day after Goodwin’s comments on Dec. 19, Knicks president Donnie Walsh said he would probably begin talks with the agent about a trade.


Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com