1/17 NBA Gamethread (NY-DET final from London: 102-87 Knicks)

[Clippersfan86]

From what I saw last year, the clippers were just too much for OKC. I believe the clippers won the season series 3-1. Now with this clipper team even much better than last year, no way anything changes. I've got clippers in this game, no doubt. With or without CP3.

Yes they did win 3-1. Also Durant and Westbrook the last 3 years have had pretty horrible shooting percentages and overall games vs the Clippers. The year before the season series was 2-2 but the numbers and differential clearly favored the Clippers. Bottom line is the Clippers play OKC well pretty much every time.

[kblo247]

Barkley's a ****ing idiot if he thinks Wade isn't pacing himself

Barkely is the same guy who said Kobe couldn't average 30 in the 2010 playoffs for a series. He spewed the same stuff the Phoenix series where Kobe averaged well over it. He tends to age SGs in his mind

[Andrew32]

So is it fair to say Wade > Kobe after tonight.
I think it is.

[Lakersfan2483]

So is it fair to say Wade > Kobe after tonight.
I think it is.

Nope not after one game. Lebron was the difference in the game tonight. Best player in the NBA right now.

[Chronz]

So is it fair to say Wade > Kobe after tonight.
I think it is.

Those floor based floaters were on tonight, I really hope he keeps developing these flicks at the rim, he still gets decent elevation when need be but you saw him create easy looks without having to exert so much energy on the attempt.

[SteBO]

7 fga for Howard? 7 fga for Gasol? 11 fga for Metta? That's a damn shame when the Heat were playing a small lineup... Why is World Peace running the offense so much? Metta had Howard & Gasol (WIDE) open multiple times but ignored them to do some stupid move... D'Antoni is a joke

The league is trending towards a small ball style of play now though. What's amazing about this Laker team is that they're probably one of only maybe two teams that can make us adjust to them. We played Joel way more than we're used to and our half court offense suffered at times because if it. LBJ and Wade simply played like superstars last night....both of them were awesome. And Ray Allen showed up when it was needed...Lakers are an extremely tough matchup for us out west.

[bucketss]

#HeatTaped
#LotteryPickToTheDome

[ManRamForPrez24]

Howard always has had struggles with getting consistent FGAs. It was a bit of a polarizing issue among Magic fans (just ask any of us). I always maintained that the offense never should have worked through Dwight (I've always been hard on him/liked him less than most). Rather, the offense should often work in an effort to get him open and thus get him the ball. Feeding him play after play didn't really help us out. It might be a meaningless relationship, but usually the higher his FGAs the fewer points we were scoring as a team.

I only watched the early part and he seemed to be relatively active. He did also take 13 FTAs, so there's that. Zero turnovers is as rare of a phenomena as you'll get with Dwight, so that's odd.

He's a great offensive player, despite what some say. He isn't the guy you can feed the ball to in bad positions constantly and watch him take over a game but if you get him moving and get the ball moving he can burn defenses. Right now there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of that. The team isn't moving the ball especially well offensively, and that's gonna hurt him.

I still think it's just a matter of getting used to things. There's too much talent for this to continue not working.

[Im_in_Mia_bish]

solid game.

kobe made it exciting in the end, but lebron jsut shut the door. thankfully.

anyways onto the next one.

good luck to the lakers, and i sincerely mean it.

[JordansBulls]

I don't understand what is wrong with Howard. Maybe he is a system guy as well like Deron Williams.

[Im_in_Mia_bish]

I don't understand what is wrong with Howard. Maybe he is a system guy as well like Deron Williams.

umm nothin is wrong. he just excels in certain plays. pick and roll with a quick pointguard. surround him with good shooters (like orlando did).
its just simple stuff. you can't blame him or fault him for whats going on in LA.

it is what it is. and im sure the players he had in orlando were better defensively than what LA has.

who knows..
either way at this rate do you guys still think he will be the best center in the nba, and if so, where would you place him among the top 15 best nba players currently?

[JordansBulls]

BTW is Haslem going to be the starting PF for now on or what?

[Im_in_Mia_bish]

BTW is Haslem going to be the starting PF for now on or what?

god knows. spo is hard to figure out. i guess he is finally learning to mix it up so we dont be too predictable.

but for now haslem looks to be in the starting rotation with joel getting a few more mins.

[Slug3]

Howard always has had struggles with getting consistent FGAs. It was a bit of a polarizing issue among Magic fans (just ask any of us). I always maintained that the offense never should have worked through Dwight (I've always been hard on him/liked him less than most). Rather, the offense should often work in an effort to get him open and thus get him the ball. Feeding him play after play didn't really help us out. It might be a meaningless relationship, but usually the higher his FGAs the fewer points we were scoring as a team.

I only watched the early part and he seemed to be relatively active. He did also take 13 FTAs, so there's that. Zero turnovers is as rare of a phenomena as you'll get with Dwight, so that's odd.

He's a great offensive player, despite what some say. He isn't the guy you can feed the ball to in bad positions constantly and watch him take over a game but if you get him moving and get the ball moving he can burn defenses. Right now there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of that. The team isn't moving the ball especially well offensively, and that's gonna hurt him.

I still think it's just a matter of getting used to things. There's too much talent for this to continue not working.

the thing is, people will see the 7 FG attempts and think why is he shooting only 7 times a game? In reality he might shoot like 12 FTs a game so that could easily be about 6 more attempts or so that just dont get put on the books if he doesn't make the shot.

[Chronz]

umm nothin is wrong.

Yes there is

he just excels in certain plays. pick and roll with a quick pointguard. surround him with good shooters (like orlando did).

Every player thrives with additional spacing, but he did just fine with Rafer Alston as his PG.

its just simple stuff. you can't blame him or fault him for whats going on in LA.

Hes not the same player he was last year, its that simple.