NBA SUNDAY Thoughts

Andrew Upshaw

I watched a few games on Sunday. All of the Knicks-Celtics game and Lakers-Heat game and some of the Chicago-Philly game. I can only common on the first two. The Knicks and Celtics game was hyped a little bi by ABC. Since Linsanity started he Knicks have been the league’s hottest story. Ive seen many headlines stating that the Knicks are Jeremy Lin’s team and that Melo will have o adjust and fit in. Slow down. I didn’t see anything on Sunday that indicated that Melo wasn’t the best player on the Knicks. Yes, Jeremy Lin had an off game but for a couple of stretches Melo carried them and if the Knicks are gonna be any type of threat Melo needs the ball more than Jeremy Lin does. Melo still looks rusty though I wonder what his deal is. i don’t think he’s fallen off but he is taking a long time to get going this year. STAT on the other hand DOES look like he’s fallen off. Hopefully not bt I don’t see that same athleticism in hs game any more. He isn’t bad, his game is just different. Stoudmire’s game remnds me of David West a guy who hits a bunch of 18 footers. The Knicks dominated the first half and Magic and Jon Barry got a little too excited saying that they look like championship contenders. Slow down. First of all the Celtics aren’t exactly the Celtics of old. Going into Sunday they were just a game over .500 and Danny Ainge their GM has been talking about blowing up the team. Second of all, the second half still had to be played and within 5 minutes the Celtics had erased their defect and were now building a lead of their own. At one point during the third quarter they built a 15 point lead. It was done on the backs of Pierce and Rondo. Pierce carried the Celtics in scoring and Rondo did a lot of everything with 18 points, 17 boards, and 20 assists. Imagine how many assists he’d have on a team that could run. Melo and the Knicks fought back in the forth ( Jeremy Lin even made a few big shots!) to tie it up and send it into overtime. It was very exiting. The Celtics won the OT behind a couple of great plays by Rondo. At great as Rondo was and as great a win it was the Celtics made it harder than it should have been. Rondo missed a ton a layups that he always makes that would have wrapped the game up much earlier. It is still hard to see why Rondo’s seen as expendable by the Celtics when he has games like these. The big three aren’t quite as big as before and the lack of depth behind their starters is holding the Celtics back, it’s not Rondo.

I have less to say about the Laker win over Miami because i don’t think it mattered that much. Mainly because Miami’t third beat player Chris Bosh (who’d be the best player on several NBA teams) missed the game due to the death of his grandmother. Since both teams essentially only have three good players the Lakers were basically playing 3 on 2 against the Heat. You gotta win that one. The Lakers did so thats good but it really isn’t a measuring stick or an important win. A win is good any way you can get it. Kobe went into Mamba mode for most of the game so that was nice to see (especially against a good team). Lebron played well but his boy D Wade struggled a bit and that was it. The Lakers had a semi-comfortable lead for most of he game. The Lakers have won three in row after the all star break and now have three in a row on the road. If they win these three get excited because the Lakers have been terrible this season on the road. That’s all I got.

Posted by labatman24 on March 5, 2012

https://andrew2486.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/nba-sunday-thoughts/