Indiana vs. Toronto: Clearly not the game I was interested in, but
because it starts at 7, I was able to take some looks. Calderon and
Lowry are their two best back-court players, and even though they play
the same position, they were both played in crunch time. Valenciunus (i don't care)
was a little stronger than I thought. He looks every bit of a more
athletic Rasho Nesterovic. He defended Roy Hibbert particularly well
from what I got to see. Granger didn't play and I want to avoid
looking at teams that are missing top guys. I'm very unimpressed with
any of Toronto's wing players. Derozan and Landry are both very very
average. This game was singlehandedly won by David West. He battled
fouls early in the game and Toronto built up a lead for most of the
game, but Indiana went to West for most of the 4th, came back and won.
You can see the box score says 25 points in like 25 minutes. It's
not like West was beasting, he was just making tough shots.
Denver vs. Philadelphia: I watched the first 8 minutes or so, but this
game became unwatchable once other games started. Again, teams
without their top guys. Philadelphia was missing Bynum and Denver was
missing Gallo. From what I saw, Denver is some shit. I'm not sure
where the hype is coming from, but it's a bad sign when Kosta Koufos
comes out of training camp winning the starting gig. Pair him with
Faried and you have a pretty offensively inept front court. By all
accounts this game was changed when Spencer Hawes came off the bench
for Philly (not sure why Lavoy Allen got the starting nod).
Houston vs. Detroit: I didn't plan on this being the feature game, but
as soon as Harden put the ball on the floor I was hooked. SON! WHOA!
You know I love Harden, and we all knew he was underrated......but I
don't think we were doing him enough justice. Harden looked like the
best SG in the league last night (with all due respect to Kobe and
Wade, they just don't have the complete package like this: shooting,
pick and roll game, court vision). There is absolutely no holes in
his game. I don't even think he's practiced yet, but it didn't
matter. All he needs is a ball screen or honestly, he really doesn't
even need that. He was ridiculously efficient.....shooting and
getting to the paint. His IQ is off the charts: he read the defense
like a wizard - basically Detroit started doubling and triple teaming
him by the 3rd quarter (it was that serious). All Harden did was pick
Detroit apart by making a well timed swing or skip pass, or he split
the double and found someone wide open. I can go on forever gushing
about his game, but we got all season for that. Also impressed with
Lin and Asik. Asik has more offensive game than I thought. Lin has a
high IQ as well. He played a good floor game, not forcing anything.
That three-some is so impressive, I'd venture to say they are a power
forward away from making noise in the playoffs. Harden/Lin/Asik alone
is good enough to make the playoffs. Oddly, McHale played no rookies.
As for Detroit, they looked good when Harden and Lin were out the
game, but when that wasn't happening they were out matched. I was
impressed with Jerebko off the bench as a hybrid forward/energy guy.
I was also impressed with Brandon Knight. He's not a playmaker but
he's got a wet jumper.
Sacramento vs. Chicago: I only caught a few glimpses of this game.
Sacramento still looks undisciplined and selfish. Chicago will miss
Rose, but they're just as good a defensive team, if not better, with
Hinrich starting. They'll be a tough team all year.
San Antonio vs. New Orleans: I predicted the Hornets would be
historically bad, and for most of this game that prediction looked
foolish. They looked scrappy and outplayed the Spurs. However, it's
the Spurs and they buckled down when they needed to. Spurs are going
to need Manu this year, if they're going to get a decent playoff spot.
Parker is having to do too much. Anthony Davis looked pretty good
for the Hornets. He's an energy guy right now who will get you a
double double off hustle. EG is out indefinately (surprise!).
Grievas looked like Nash in the first half, but the Spurs shut that
down after halftime. Your main man, Austin Rivers struggled (1 for
9)......as I expected......he's not that good.
Dallas vs. Utah: I saw enough of this game to make these rankings. 1.
Jefferson 2. Kanter 3. Millsap 4. Favors. Favors still plays like a
teenager. Utah is tough at home. I'm not going to get excited over
this win. The game looked even until a vicious run in the 3rd quarter
put it away.
Golden State vs. Phoenix: Didn't take long for me to not want to watch
this game. For all the additions and excitement for Golden State,
they are worse than last year. Bogut (like EG) will always be hurt,
they still cant guard, but now the whole offense is Steph Curry and
spot ups for Klay. Phoenix will suck, but I can see how they'll win
25 or so games. Gortat, Scola and Dragic aren't that bad and they've
got some kind of weird international connection already.
Memphis vs LA Clippers: Didn't see too much of this because the Laker
game, but I did see Crawford going off in crunch time and I saw Eric
Bledsoe get benched despite playing out of his mind. Bledsoe will be
the next player that gets traded and starts putting up all star
numbers......he's just caught up behind CP3 now and it's not fair.
Clippers will be tough this year. They have a lot more weapons than
last year and they should be better defensively.
La Lakers vs Portland: Lillard is something of a Damon Stoudemire
2.0. He can score, and he's not afraid, but I can see Portland
growing to not like him at some point. He's not a pure PG, where he
is creating easy shots for guys. He's going to get ROY, because he's
going to average close to 20, but I'm not that in love with his game.
Batum is sick two-way player. We knew he was a good defender, spot up
shooter, and finisher, but today he showed an ability to score off the
dribble. I've noticed with Aldridge that he starts games blazing hot,
but as the game goes on he begins to disappear. That's just an
observation that I'm going to keep an eye on. As for the Lakers, they
were less married to the Princeton today, and instead seemed intent on
feeding Howard the ball. Howard absolutely obliterated every Portland
defender put in front of him, but this was not translating into
winning for several reasons. First, the Lakers can't guard anybody.
Not only are the perimeter players not keeping guys in front of them,
but their seems to be a lot of confusion on the help defense and on
the pick and roll defense. The second reason, Nash. After 2 games I
think Nash is uncomfortable because he's playing this offense where
he's not the focal point and he's playing off the ball most the time,
but I also think he is starting to show his age. Dude has grey hairs!
Both Lillard today, and Collison yesterday bothered Nash bringing the
ball up the court, and Nash struggled to stay in front of both those
guys. It's only 2 games, but it's about to be a problem in LA. Many
people are questioning Mike Brown, and it will be a serious problem
once all those veterans stop believing in him (if that hasn't happened
already).
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