***2012-13 NBA THREAD!!! New Season/New Thread - LET'S GO!!!!!***

[DCranon21]

The Lakers are playing well, but that team is one turned ankle away from being a complete disaster again. All it takes if for Howard to sleep funny or Nash to stub his toe and they drop 5 of 6 in a heartbeat.

By the way, he was named Western Conference Player of the month.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

The problem is basketball is the one sport where a great player can more or less win a title on his own with just some basic competence around him. Barry Bonds at his big-headed apex was only getting 1/9th of his team's at-bats and had no control over the most important part of a playoff series (pitching). A good QB is ultimately only responsible for about 25 percent of a team's success. A good hockey player probably has the second most impact, but even the greatest ones only play a little over 1/3 of the minutes in a game. A great basketball player can be on the court 90 percent of the time and impact every possession on both ends of the court.

I said a few years ago that Lebron would eventually win a title because he is the greatest player in the world and the greatest player in the world always wins a title. Durant will win a title too some day for the same reason.

[youngchew]

Denver Nuggets win their 7th win in a row. at 40-22, they would be 2nd place in the east, but theyre 5th in the west lol

Kenneth Faried with his 28th double double. Ty Lawson comes up huge again as well.

Javale Mcgee with 4 big blocks late. Mcgee HUMILIATED Demarcus Cousins with a nasty block. smacked his ****.

[skinfan2k]

Javale McGee is balling this year. Maybe having a veteran team around him and a coach like George Karl has made him mature

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

George Karl might be the most under-rated coach in league history.

[Dr. Do Itch Big]

The streak continues...

[samy316]

Wow, huge win by the Lakers to keep pace with both Utah & Houston. Big performance by Kobe too, 42pts, 12ast & 7reb. I know the victory was against the Pelicans, but coming back from 25 points down, and a 21 point deficit in the 4th Quarter is huge, considering what happened last night. If the Lakers had lost tonight, I might have joined those who are saying they wouldn't make the playoffs. The Lakers have a couple of games here to maybe slid into that 8th seed, and maybe higher if the other teams ahead of them continue to slid.

I think Utah is the team that will concede a playoff seed to the Lakers. Their schedule is very rough down the stretch, and you can't lose a game like they did to Cleveland tonight and expect to make it. Golden State might also be another team that concedes a playoff spot, they haven't looked so good the last 10-12 games.

[Destino]

I think the Lakers will make the post season if they can stay healthy. Either Utah or Houston will go on a skid, probably Utah, and that will give LA a chance to sneak in. Meanwhile the Dwight Howard self destruction tour continues, his former Magic team mates didn't appreciate him saying that those teams were filled with players no one wanted. Redick said it best when asked about it: “I would be more surprised when Dwight starts taking responsibility."

[stevemcqueen1]

I think the Lakers will make the post season if they can stay healthy. Either Utah or Houston will go on a skid, probably Utah, and that will give LA a chance to sneak in. Meanwhile the Dwight Howard self destruction tour continues, his former Magic team mates didn't appreciate him saying that those teams were filled with players no one wanted. Redick said it best when asked about it: “I would be more surprised when Dwight starts taking responsibility."

I think Utah is actually better than Houston. Utah is the least sexy potential playoff team in the league but they've got an awesome group of bigs and good depth. They can play a little defense. Not the best but better than Houston and Golden State. Houston is also heavily reliant on Harden playing well. He's the only guy they've got that's played a decent amount of minutes with a 16+ PER. Utah has 6 guys and they form a fine front court rotation. The only problem is their guards are horrible. But most of Houston outside Harden is totally mediocre to bad. Utah also made it over Houston last season too.

I think LA is still a bit of a long shot to make it. They have no margin for error whatsoever.

---------- Post added March-7th-2013 at 09:45 PM ----------

Penny Hardaway, guest anchor on NBATV tonight. He's got the same weird facial hair he had in the early 90's.

He and Grant Hill were my two favorite players when I first started playing little league basketball. I used to get all his shoes:





The trash talk between Penny/Shaq/3D and Kenny has me nostalgic.

---------- Post added March-7th-2013 at 09:58 PM ----------

The Thunder are a three man team. Their three are so damn good they give them endless margin for error. But the Knicks are hanging around with them without Carmelo because of how good their depth is.

[ixcuincle]

[samy316]

I think Utah is actually better than Houston. Utah is the least sexy potential playoff team in the league but they've got an awesome group of bigs and good depth. They can play a little defense. Not the best but better than Houston and Golden State. Houston is also heavily reliant on Harden playing well. He's the only guy they've got that's played a decent amount of minutes with a 16+ PER. Utah has 6 guys and they form a fine front court rotation. The only problem is their guards are horrible. But most of Houston outside Harden is totally mediocre to bad. Utah also made it over Houston last season too.

I think LA is still a bit of a long shot to make it. They have no margin for error whatsoever.

I think at the end of the day, Utah is probably going to slide out of the playoff race, because they don't have a go-to guy like Houston, or of course, LA. Last night is a prime example of why Utah won't make it. When Cleveland made that 4th Quarter run to beat the Jazz, the Jazz were shell-shocked and didn't know what to do. When you're best scoring option is Mo Williams, you are in trouble. Not to take anything away from Utah, but their remaining schedule is the 5th hardest in the NBA to end the season, and their next few games are at Chicago and at New York. The Lakers who are currently 1 1/2 games back might be in 7th place by the end of Sunday.

[stevemcqueen1]

Kendrick Perkins is terrible now. If I were OKC I would work really hard to trade for a competent C. Trade him and a contract and the Toronto first round pick for Emeka Okafor.

[Fight4RGIII]

I would hate to sit behind Spike Lee at a Knicks game.

[Destino]

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/22...akamutombo.gif

not today! huh huh huh

[stevemcqueen1]

Who will sex Dikembe tonight?