NBA Daily: 1-22-10

Tim Duncan became the latest to hit a milestone (20,000 points). There were 13 NBA games last night and a lot of  great performances to choose from. Oh how will I possibly be able to whittle my list down to three stars.

NBA Stars Of The Night

Dwyane Wade, Miami. After a horrible effort against Charlotte, Wade came back strong with 32 points and10 assists. The problem is that he can’t possibly maintain this pace without some help from his teammates. No one else in the league has to carry his team quite like Dwyane.

Stephen Curry, Golden State. I had to pick Curry for two reasons. First he scored 32 points with 7 assists and 4 steals while playing all 48 minutes. Second, it’s not very often that the Warriors hold an opponent to under 80 points. Stephen Curry played some pesky defense last night helping cause 19 Nets turnovers.

David Lee, New York. The Knicks may have lost, but that was not because of Lee. He ended up with 31 points, 17 rebounds and 4 assists. He needs to be an All-Star this year. He is averaging over 19 points, 11 rebounds and 3 assists per game.

NBA Dud Of The Night

Antawn Jamison, Washington. Jamison has to be about ready to get out of town. He has to be frustrated by his team and it’s starting to show in his performance. Last night he had 8 points on 14 shots with only five rebounds. Please get him on a contending team.

International Player Of The Night

Pau Gasol, Spain . Gasol rebounded from a lackluster performance against Cleveland with 20 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks and 5 assists against the Knicks. He also donated $1,000 per point to Haiti last night ($20,000 if you can’t do the math).

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NBA Daily: 1-21-10

TNT had control of the NBA universe as the only two games last night were on the network. One of the games included the “King” vs the “Mamba” as Cleveland beat the Lakers. The other had Chris Kaman and the Clippers getting blown out by Denver.

NBA Stars Of The Night

Lebron James, Cleveland. Lebron had 37 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists to lead the Cavaliers past the Lakers. He is now having a career year in field goal percentage, assists and free throw percentage. He’s only 25 years old and should actually get better in the next couple of seasons (sorry rest of the league).

Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers. Kobe had 31 points in the losing effort, but did pass 25,000 points on his career. After losing the season series versus Cleveland, I suspect that Kobe is going to really push his teammates to play tougher. This should be the moment that pushes his team to go on a nice long win streak.

Carmelo Anthony, Denver. Anthony had 28 points and 10 rebounds to lead a balanced attack in the win. Carmelo is a big time scorer who has good solid players around him, which denies him bigger stats in the rebound and assist stats. Normally I would point to a guy like him and call him one-dimensional, but considering team success, I can’t dis on  Melo.

NBA Dud Of The Night

Ron Artest, Derek Fisher, Andrew Bynum; Lakers. This trio of starters scored a combined 21 points in their loss to Cleveland. I could even put Pau Gasol on this list with his 13 points (on 14 shots). If Kobe’s teammates play like this in the Finals versus Cleveland (bold prediction), they will get destroyed. They need a more balanced attack.

International Player Of The Night

Anderson Varejao, Brazil. Varejao only had 11 points and 8 rebounds, but that is all Lebron and the Cavs needed out of him. The good thing is that he only took 6 shots (making 4 of them). Cleveland plays great when their Brazilian forward plays hard and is opportunistic on offense.

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The Nike Puppets Take NBA Player of the Month Honors

Lebron James and Kobe Bryant seem to be showing up everywhere together. From the hilarious Nike puppet commercials, to Lebron’s Cavs beating Kobe’s Lakers on Christmas day, these guys are inseparable.

With that, it is no surprise that Lebron James is the Eastern Conference Player of the Month and Kobe Bryant is the Western Conference honoree. Honestly this should happen every month, they are by far the two best players in the league.

Not that they will run the table on monthly awards for the rest of the season. Kia, who presents the awards, would probably like to spread the wealth. Not that the Motor company decides on the award winners, but we all know that it is bad business to give the same guy the award every time.

Remember when Jordan was in his prime. Name a year when someone else was better than him. Michael should have won ten MVPs. However they had to throw an award to Karl Malone and Charles Barkley just to break the monotony.

So be prepared to see Kobe and Lebron take most of the monthly honors this year, but not all of them. If everything ends up legitimate, be prepared to see the two of them alternate the real MVP awards for the next six years, no one else (barring injury) should be in the discussion. Of course the powers that be may decide to give it to someone else at some point just to look “fair”.

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NBA Player Profile: Lebron James

Lebron James is destined to be one of the greatest players in NBA history. Despite the unreal expectations put on him while still in high school, he has exceeded what most experts thought he could do at this stage of his career. He is the player most likely to become the second (Oscar Robertson) to average a triple double for a season.

Strengths: Where to begin. He can drive to the basket, post up his defender. He rebounds above his position and is probably the best non-guard passer in NBA history. He has become a tenacious defender and gets to the foul line over eight times a game. He is becoming an above average three point shooter.

Weaknesses: So far he hasn’t been able to lead his team all the way. His free throw percentage, while improving year to year, could still be better. If he can get his three point percentage  above 40 percent, he would be unstoppable.

Our Opinions

James: He is one of the best ten players in NBA history already, and he could end up in the top three. When his career is done he will catch Kobe as the all-time scoring leader (yes Kobe will catch Kareem). He will also enter the top ten all-time in assists with over eight thousand. He could also be in the top five all-time in steals.

George: Stats, stats, stats. Is that all you care about James. What about championships? I just don’t know if he wants it enough to win multiple NBA titles and I can’t put him in the top five all-time if he doesn’t win at least two.

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