Maybe experience can help you win championships but in the regular season it seems like the bigger factor is how many miles are already on these players legs. Case in point: The Celtic, who seem to come out firing in each one of the games they played this week constantly came up as a result of not having enough left in the tank at the end. After seeing Garnett in both the end of the Magic and Lakers games, one might wonder if Doc Rivers needs to sit him down for a game or two to get his wind back. Oh and now a brief message from Kevin Garnett's knee:
"Please someone help me. This man is crazy. He gives 110% every time he goes out there and does not know how to dial back his game so that I can recover. I almost all but gave up on him after that failed alley-oop attempt in the Magic game...HOW OLD DOES HE THINK HE IS! This is not 1998! By the time Rashard Lewis blew past us, I felt like I was dipped in cement. Please, if you guys don't want a repeat of last year's mystery debacle in the playoffs, tell him to stop now.
And we're back. Moving on to the other aging team. It seems like one obvious problem with the Spurs is the fact that Tim Duncan is just getting older and Pops has had to monitor the minutes of his starters to such a degree that they have had to rely on their bench to keep them in games a little too much. The absence of Tony Parker probably also doesn't really help. But this is not necessarily a knock on the Spurs bench. I love Hill as a developing prospect in the Tony Parker mold and Dejuan Blair provides a real solid spark off the bench. But the majority of the load is placed on Duncan and Manu since Jefferson is still struggling to find his place on the team.
Now this is not necessarily panic time for any of these teams as there is still alot of regular season to play and the playoffs are what counts anyway, but some of these teams may want to be looking for that one extra piece to help them out as the trade deadline approaches. And they will probably want to gear it up as the leaders (Cavs and Lakers) in each conference distances themselves from the pack. That home-court advantage would certainly come in handy.
My weekly NBA's Top Ten for this week go as follows:
1. Cavs
2. Lakers
3. Nuggets
4. Magic
5. Hawks
6. Jazz
7. Mavs
8a. Celtics
8b. Spurs (I switched them too many times and finally gave up)
10. Thunder
Outside Looking In: Grizzlies (Let's see how they look this next week) & Blazers (Their season depends on Brandon Roy's hamstring & Andre Miller's ability to score 50 a night.... not a good sign.)
My Top 5
ReplyDelete1. Cavs- LeBron... nuff said
2. Lakers- In the battle of Kobe vs. the clock, Kobe seems to win time and time again.
3. Nuggets- They have been holding their own without the help of Melo, hopefully when he returns they will be
4. Magic- I'm really hesitant to place them here because they are overly dependent on Howard but as long as he is healthy and dominant they are going to continue to have a stronghold in the East
5. Celtics- Rondo's performance this week made for some entertaining basketball. But there performance the past few games show that they just can't finish. No matter how good of a game you are having or how much you dominate the crucial quarters, the W is what matters.
Honorable Mention***
Hawks- Crawford is a solid 6th man and for a team that wasn't catching too much of my attention at the beginning of the season, they have been respectfully holding their own against the East coast power houses.