2009 Slam Dunk Contestants Announced

While you enjoy the healthy set of basketball games throughout this Christmas day, I take a quick minute to announce the contestants of the 2009 All Star Slam Dunk Contest.

 

• Dwight Howard (defending champion)
• Rudy Gay
• Nate Robinson
• Joe Alexander, Rudy Fernandez or Russell Westbrook (fan vote -in)

 

Turn in your vote here.

80 Million Dollar Forward Out For a Month

Elton Brand, Philadelphia’s big catch that costed them 80 mil last summer suffered a shoulder injury last night while the Sixers faced the Bucks. The Sixers starting power forward and leading scorer dislocated his shoulder on this fall and was helped out of the game. It’s been determined that Brand won’t need surgery. 

The loss of Brand, who’s been averaging 15.9 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, will open up more opportunities for Philadelphia’s prideful rookie, Marreese Speights. The 6′10” forward has had an impressive outing in his first year, averaging 6.4 points along with 3.8 rebounds. 

The injury will only add to the list of disappointments Philadelphia has been filling since the start of the season. They’re 9-14 start gave Mo Cheeks the boot. But they’re 2-0 under they’re new interim coach, Tony DiLeo.

In other Sixer news, Andre Miller has somehow become the go-to-guy at times for the Sixers. Miller currently averages 15.3 points and 5.9 assists per game. Despite Iguodala’s usual slow start, he’s been averaging 21 points, 8.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists in his last five games. Thad Young is putting up a steady 13 points nightly and Lou Williams is beginning to find a lot more playing time under coach DiLeo.

 

Dated: December 18th, 2008

Al Harrington Exploding in NY

 

Unless you’re a die-hard Knicks fan, it’s hard to follow what the Knicks have done in the past couple of seasons. Beside that though, the franchise is finally seeing some light heading into this season. Newly acquired coach, Mike D’Antoni has help guide the team to a 11-14 record, while it’s not too impressive, the team has already half the wins they totaled last season. Thankfully, the ever-glowing cancer of Stephon Marbury is gone for the most part (Steph purchased a ticket to sit baseline during the Knicks-Lakers game.) Team president, Donnie Walsh has told Marbury to stay away from team practices and games until they can work a buyout of his contract with the Knicks. The talent has also been growing from New York on many sides, players like Wilson Chandler, Derek Lee, Nate Robinson are getting their chance to blossom for the franchise. While things are looking up, the franchise is also bracing themselves for a chance to bring LeBron James to New York in 2010 via Free Agency. 

With many headlines surrounding the team, Donnie Walsh was never shy to continue reshaping the franchise with a couple of trades. Jamal Crawford, the loose cannon himself, was shipped away along with the money-eating 20-10 machine, Zach Randolph. The Knicks received Tim Thomas, Cuttino Mobley (retired due to heart problems) and most notably, a disgruntled Al Harrington. 

Harrington has taken a new method into improvising his game with his new team. Averaging 24.3 points and 7.6 rebounds as a Knick, the highest he’s ever averaged in his 10 year career. The 6′9” forward, gladly left the struggling Warriors to help the Knicks in their post season hopes and has been erupting with nine out of twelve games where he’s put up at least 20 points and 6 rebounds. His return to the Golden State was stunning, Harrington hung 36 points along with 12 rebounds to help the Knicks defeat his former team. His best night so far in his young career with New York was against the Nets, where he led the team to a win with 39 points and 13 rebounds. He’s currently the team’s starting power forward and has become no stranger to expressing D’Antoni’s loose offense in the scoring department.

The trades have shook the team substantially though, going 4-8 since they took place. On the brighter side, the Knicks are beginning to feel more comfortable under D’Antoni’s gameplan and the team is beginning to have a more competitive push. Last night’s 2-point-loss to the (21-3) Lakers helped prove the effort. 

 

 

Dated: December 17th, 2008

 

Surging Spurs Ready For Revival

After a 1-4 start, no one really gave two [explicit] about the boring San Antonio Spurs. Especially with the absence of two of the team’s core players, in Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. Still, the Spurs continued their repetitively humble attack throughout the season, expecting everything to fall right back into place. Of course, sooner than later, the Spurs found their prideful footsteps and are back to slowly killing whichever team steps in their way, for the most part.

It’s all been basically the same story for the Spurs the last couple of years, winning seasons capped by Championships and some more winning seasons that came up a few games short from raising gold. A quarter into the season, Tim Duncan has been impressive for San Antonio, averaging 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds a game. His closest partner, Tony Parker hasn’t disappointed either, with 23 points and 6.7 assists in 11 games. Ginobili has finally become an active player for the Spurs, coming off the bench he’s averaged 14.1 points per game while averaging just 24 minutes. San Antonio has also been critically helped by younger talent with their rookie, Georgie Hill posting an impressive, 10.2 points and 3.2 assists per game under 22 minutes. Newly acquired Roger Mason Jr. easily slipped in to try and fill in for the then-injured Parker. The deadly perimeter shooter, currently averages 13.8 points per game, while shooting .471 from behind the arc. 

The Spurs are coming, quietly winning eight out of their last ten games. The nucleaus of the team is healthy and the chemistry is stronger than any other squad in the league. These veterans know each other vividly and instead of their old age diminishing their durability to last past 48 minutes, their experience kicks in under crunch situations. Ask the Mavericks who recently lost to them in a double overtime on Tuesday.

 

Dated: December 11th, 2008

 

More Impressive? Lakers or Cavaliers?

No disrespect to the Celtics (17-2), but this comparison is brought up due to the success these two teams have been having behind their strong MVP candidates. The Cavaliers (14-3) are 9-1 in their last ten games by completely demolishing any team that comes in their way. They’ve only respectively lost to Boston, New Orleans (9-6), and Detroit (11-6). Twelve of their victories were by more than 10 points. LeBron James is averaging less numbers than his previous season but is working beautifully with Mo Williams to produce a healthy winning campaign. He’s still having his nights though, such as his back to back 41 point games against Indiana and Chicago. Williams is also sacrificing his numbers to adapt to the Cleveland offense that has been steaming this season. The Cavs have also received notable strong play from Ilgauskas and the backcourt combo of Delonte West and Daniel Gibson. So far the Cavaliers have exceeded their expectations with the addition of Williams. 

The Lakers are the unstoppable club from the West that have brought forth effective bench play, defense and leadership from Kobe Bryant. They have lost one game every two weeks this season and boldly seem unstoppable with their healthy starting line-up. Besides having the best player in the league, the Lakers starters include Derek Fisher, Vladimir Radmanovic, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Bryant, who’s also averaging his lowest numbers since the 03-04 season is perfectly settled with 24 points a game while racking up wins. The Lakers gameplan seems pretty obvious, continually giving their starters plenty of rest, most importantly Bryant, who’s yet to play more than 40 minutes in a game this season. Their two losses come from Detroit and lndiana.

Now the question arises, which team has impressed everyone the most this season? The argument in the Cavaliers favor screams LeBron doesn’t have the same supporting cast Mr. Bryant does, therefore LBJ is doing everything in Cleveland, which remains impressive. The Lakers were suspected to carry on a stronger season with the addition of the once-injured Andrew Bynum. The strong wins supplied by Bryant and Co. are simply a treasure to watch nightly, the Lakers undeniably seem untouchable this season. The verdict leans toward the Lakers, due to their stronger wins against opponents such as Houston, Phoenix, Dallas and New Orleans (who beat the Cavs). None of those final scores are close either, especially their victory over the heavily hailed Rockets, where the Lakers won 111-82.

Still, it’s extremely too early to really see who the more impressive team has been. And yeah, it is a disrespect to the Celtics in a way, but the only doubts surrounding Boston was whether they’ve lost their hunger which is brutally dumb. The Cavaliers and Lakers still have ways to go this season but both have had the best start they could imagine.

Register and Vote: Devin Harris

 

 

 

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