The New York Knicks host the Dallas Mavericks in Sunday’s best NBA game as Tyson Chandler faces his former team for the first time since winning the championship and the Mavericks put Jeremy Lin’s ballhandling to the test. Lin had nine turnovers – matching a league season high – in his first loss as a starter, Friday’s 89-85 home setback to the lowly New Orleans Hornets. Winning had allowed people to overlook Lin’s ballhandling, but he has 29 turnovers in his
Let’s check in on last year’s Finals participants, shall we? There was quite a game in Dallas, where the Mavericks were trying to extend their winning streak and the Clippers were trying to complete a spiffy 5-1 road trip. The night began and ended with Caron Butler. Butler spent last season with the Mavericks. He began as their starting small forward and helped Dallas to a 24-8 start before suffering a torn patellar tendon that cost him the rest of the season.
On Jan. 31, Derrick Favors will have an extra deduction from his paycheck. Late in the third quarter of Thursday’s loss to Dallas, the forward of the Utah Jazz threw a ball into the stands in disagreement with an offensive foul call. His immediate punishment was ejection from referee Matt Boland. On Saturday, the NBA decided Favors needed further discipline and fined him $25,000. The fine came from NBA VP of Violence Stu Jackson, who has been remarkably inactive this season. Gotta love
Should the Philadelphia 76ers be taken seriously? Here’s why they should: In a season where continuity counts, they have virtually the same roster as last season’s. They have terrific depth to handle a relenteless schedule. They value the basketball. And they have no individual agendas. “They’re a very underrated team,” Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut said after his team became another double-digit victim earlier this week. “They move the ball well, they’re very well-coached and they showed it.” Here’s why they shouldn’t: They
Last week’s edition of The Bernucca List was the toughest to date, with the post going an entire day before Ali Black was credited with the correct answer, which requires a minor clarification. Black’s answer was “players with a higher scoring average than their father.” Technically, Ronnie Brewer does not (yet) have a higher scoring average than his father, Ron. Hat tip to Steve Lardner for pointing that out. Specifically, I was looking for “players better than their fathers,” which Ronnie Brewer
Highlight Performances: Chris Bosh, MIA– When Bosh first signed with the Heat, most people expected Bosh to be, well, what he has been through the first 8 games this season. He’s averaging 20 points a game, and could easily be averaging much more had he not had such a pedestrian game on the first night of the season. Bosh seems much more comfortable this season, and he stepped up in a big way in Thursday Night’s game, scoring 33 points along
Highlight Performances: Jarrett Jack, NO– Following a disappointing night in Sacramento, Jack caught fire Monday night, scoring 27 points and dishing out 11 assists. Jack is having an impressive season averaging 16.5 points a game to go with 8.0 assists, however his value, especially scoring, figures to take a slight hit with the imminent return of Eric Gordon. Carmelo Anthony, NYK- Nobody has ever questioned Melo’s ability to score, so his 35 point/11 reb. game was not too out of the ordinary.
By Chris Sheridan And the first pertinent sub-question on that topic: Who will the big guys be? As in big and tall. Dwight Howard is the first name on that list, because like most of the 2008 Redeem Team, he has earned the right to defend the gold medal he won in Beijing. Ditto Chris Bosh. The same goes for Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant, and maybe to a slightly lesser degree to Chris Paul and Deron Williams. You can also set aside