Lebron & Cavs Win Streak Ends in Atlanta

Yesterday both the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers were enjoying massive win streaks, in fact the NBA's hottest streaks around. What a difference a day makes, as the Atlanta Hawks stopped the Cavs short of reaching their franchise record Saturday night. Atlanta was able to hold on for a 97-92 victory on their homecourt, stopping Lebron and the Cavs in their streak's tracks.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution called it "the good Hawks" who showed up Saturday, able to play under control with good D, and hang tough against the NBA's elite, like the Cavs. This same Atlanta team took Boston 7 games in last year's playoffs, making the NBA world take note. The Hawks may be able to play spoilers once again come playoff time, even with the departure of Josh Childress who went over to Europe. It all rests on the play of Atlanta's young emerging talent such as Josh Smith, Joe Johnson and Al Horford.

Despite their first loss in some time, Cleveland is still considered amongst the NBA Eastern Conference elite, as well as part of a short list of possible title winners this season. Lebron continues to remain the focal point, accomplishing stats, feats and highlights unseen before as he moves closer each day to free agency. So Cleveland will continue to measure itself against Boston, while the Hawks of the East will strive to put together a team (or draft a megastar) capable of playing at that championship level.

Read more about the Cavs & Hawks at AJC.

Josh Smith - Fantasy Player's Dream

This morning, NBA TV's Rick Kamla did a run down of the best 8 category players in Fantasy basketball so far. While the season is still very young, you might get a good indication of who to swing an early trade for. Or if you're just entering a league, who to draft high. One name is Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks. The dunktacular star from the Hawks does it all during the games except selling popcorn to the fans in the stands. Kamla of NBA TV said he even heard some fantasy leagues had Smith drafted above Kobe, and now you see why.

Will Smith make the All-star team in 2009? If he keeps up with these performances and numbers, the coaches will have no choice but to vote Smith in 2009. Although he's had just 2 games in this young season, Mr. Smith is 2nd in the league in steals and 2nd in the league in blocks. 3 of his blocks came against the imposing force down low, Dwight Howard. To cap it all off, Smith had a horrible preseason and sprained his ankle, but came into this season on fire. He's very similar to Shawn Marion who also does everything from end to end on the court. These are the types of players you want on your team, whether you're an NBA GM or a Fantasy GM!

The NBA's Early Unbeatens

The Western Conference has 4 undefeated teams while the East has 3. No surprises out West as both Houston and New Orleans are 3-0, and the Lakers and Jazz sit at 2-0. In the East, there may be a surprise or 2. One undefeated is Detroit, while the other two are Toronto and Atlanta. All three were playoff teams last year, with Atlanta surprising Boston by taking them a full 7 game series. The Raptors are on the rise this season, as they added forward Jermaine O'Neal to battle down low alongside Chris Bosh. These two provide quite an intimidating defense as well. As for Atlanta, the loss of Josh Childress to Europe hasn't hurt them so far, but again the season's early. Josh Smith has emerged into another Shawn Marion type player who definitely earns his salary. His stat lines are full night in and night out, and full stat lines help teams win games. Just ask guys like Marion, AK-47 and Kidd, who all have been known to "do a little of everything needed".

The West isn't so surprising, mainly because it's the West. Last season, even though they didn't come away with the NBA title, they still showed themselves to be the superior conference. There were teams with almost .500 records or better unable to make the playoffs. The Lakers and Hornets were amongst the final contenders, with the Lakers heading to the Finals. New Orleans at 3-0 this season shows how valuable guard Chris Paul is. The Jazz are yet another solid unit with a great point guard, defenders and shooters. The Rockets at 3-0, show that the addition of Ron Artest has been a big plus. It's one thing when you have a guy who's known as the Great Wall down low in Yao Ming, but even better when you've got Artest. And don't leave out Shane Battier, making for one solid defensive squad. Remember last season the Rockets were the hottest team in pro sports, winning over 20 straight games, and many without the services of Yao Ming.

How many of the above teams will continue their winning ways and who will be the first to falter? Will the West continue to be best, or will the East surge?

Celtics Advance, Lakers Mute Jazz

The Celtics pre-game intros includes a video of Celtics highlights on the jumbotron hanging high above the court. The video also shows KG and Pierce letting out primal screams to rile up the crowd. The Celtics fed upon that energy and came out intense in their game 7, Must Win against the Hawks. Piece seemed especially fired up as the team captain looked to lead the way. In the 3rd quarter, the Celtics had pushed out to an impressive 34 point lead. The Celtics D was extremely suffocating, preventing the Hawks from getting into any sort of scoring attack. The Celtics blew the Hawks off the court with a huge 34 point win. KG had 18 points and 11 rebounds. Marvin Williams had a hard flagrant foul on Rajon Rondo, leading to a Williams ejection and possible suspension next season.

The NBA analyst on ABC proposed the idea that maybe the Hawks hometown crowd gave them the extra motivation to win 3 games in Atlanta. Despite the loss, hats off to the Hawks for taking the best team in the NBA (record-wise) to the limit. This could help the Celtics in making them prepared for future tough games, or it may have worn them down to face a hungry Cleveland team. Jeff Van Gundy of the ABC commentary team suggested the Cavs have a great opportunity to steal Game 1 in Boston this Tuesday night.

In the second game of ABC's doubleheader, it was the Los Angeles Lakers playing against the Utah Jazz. It's already been reported that the star of the Lakers, Kobe Bryant, will take this season's MVP award for his first time this coming week. At today's game in LA stars showed up like Tobey Maguire, Denzel, Diane Cannon, Jack Nicholson, Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers as well as rocker Glenn Frey and Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr. Kobe had his usual superhero type performance with help from his supporting cast. The Jazz hung close in the 4th but the Lakers ran away with it 109-98 behind Kobe's 38 point performance. Utah dominated in the rebounding category giving them more to build upon for Game 2.

Celtics & Hawks To Be Continued...

On Friday night, two teams were sent home from the postseason while 2 will play on in a Game 7. Cleveland defeated Washington to advance to Round 2, while Utah defeated the Rockets. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Hawks continued to test the mettle of the top team in the East as they beat the Celtics, setting up a game 7 in Boston.

Atlanta had yet another impressive game against the C's, with a rowdy Atlanta crowd to back them up. The Hawks were up by as many as 7 down the stretch, with the C's battling back. Rajon Rondo threw up an airball near the buzzer in the 4th which could have been the game tying 3. Ray Allen also had several missed 3 attempts down the stretch. Even more debilitating was the technical foul called on Paul Pierce in the 4th. It was Pierce's 6th foul, which sent him to the sidelines to helplessly watch his team lose the game 103-100. Shelden Williams had 18 for Atlanta while Bibby had 17 and Joe Johnson had 15. The two teams will battle it out in Game 7 Sunday to decide who advances to Round 2.

It was deja vu in the other 2 series which ended Friday night. Cleveland sent Washington out of the Playoffs for the third straight season, while Utah ended Houston's postseason for the 2nd straight time. Another disappointment for T-Mac who has yet to win a 1st round playoff series. A dejected Yao Ming was shown on the bench, and you'd have to think if the big man had been manning the paint, Houston could have enjoyed victory. Utah will now face off with the LA Lakers starting Sunday.

As for Washington, they did have impressive performances this past season from All-stars Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison, who had to step up when Arenas was injured. Arenas decided to sit out the remainder of the playoffs due to problems with the surgically repaired leg that hampered him this past season. Despite Antawn Jamison playing great on Friday, the Wiz just didn't have enough to compete with Lebrons' triple double performance. The Cavs now get to rest up and await the winner of Atlanta vs. Boston. This could spell real bad news for the Celtics as they will beat beaten up and facing last year's NBA Finals rep from the East.

Wizards & Celtics Win, Avery Gets Axe

Despite losing guard Gilbert Arenas for the remainder of their postseason, the Washington Wizards pulled off a thrilling 1 point win over Cleveland Wednesday night. Caron Butler was the hero as he scored on a layup with 3.9 to go. Lebron couldn't deliver on a layup on the other end, Wizards win 88-87. Without Arenas though, it will be tough for the Wizards against the Cavs. According to Associated Press, Arenas felt a pinched nerve in his knee and consulted with team doctors about not playing the rest of the season:

Arenas missed 66 games during the regular season and an MRI taken before Game 3 revealed that his surgically repaired left knee has a bone bruise and a pinched nerve.

"This nerve pinch, it just came out of the blue," Arenas said. "The swelling and the achiness — I can play through that — but the nerve pain where each step feels like you're hitting my funny bone, eventually, that was wearing and tearing. It's not going anywhere."

Read more about Arenas' injury here.

The Celtics and Hawks resumed Game 5 of their deadlocked 2-2 series. The game held in Boston, saw the Celts jump out to a double digit lead in the 2nd quarter. The Hawks went on a brief run in the 3rd, but it was short lived. The Celtics' defense which had been lacking in the past few contests showed up this time to hold off the Hawks. Celtics win 110-85 behind 22 from KG, 20 from Pierce and 19 from Ray Allen. Game 6 is Friday at 8PM in Atlanta, and the home team has been yet to lose in this series.

In other news, as the Mavs lose, they also lose their head coach. Avery Johnson was given the axe on Wednesday after another disappointing first round playoff loss for Dallas. The coach is usually the first place most GM's go after when teams don't live up to expectations. Avery may find himself in a new job somewhere soon as AP reports Chicago and New York as potential suitors. There's also plenty of potential coaches floating around who would love to take on the challenge of Dallas, which has plenty of all-star talent on its roster.

"This is something that needed to happen," Johnson said. "There's no animosity or bitterness. We all still really care about each other, but it was time to go in a different direction. ... We didn't win the championship, but if you look at the whole body of work that we put together over the last 3 1/2 years ... we'll put it up against anybody."

(Source: Associated Press)

NBA Winners & Riley Resigns

On Monday, Hedo Turkoglu won the NBA's Most Improved Player Award for his 2007-08 season with the Orlando Magic. To help celebrate the award, Hedo's Magic team and he defeated the Toronto Raptors 102-92 and made them the 1st team eliminated from the playoffs. Dwight Howard had a monstrous stat line of 21 points along with a matching 21 rebounds. Turkoglu had 12 points, 8 boards and 9 assists. This is the first time Orlando has advanced to Round 2 in 12 years. Chris Bosh had 16 points and 9 rebounds for Toronto who has never won a best of 7 series.

Elsewhere, Atlanta impressed yet again with a 2nd consecutive win over the NBA "heavyweight" Boston Celtics. That series is now tied at 2-2 and raising questions about just how much of a powerhouse this Boston team really is. Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce all found themselves in foul trouble early on. Joe Johnson scored 20 points in the 4th quarter and the Hawks pulled it out 97-92. Ray Allen had 20 and KG 21 points in the losing effort. Read more about the game at Associated Press.

Kobe Bryant recorded 31 points in a Game 4 victory to sweep the Denver Nuggets out of the playoffs. The Nuggets may be the most disappointing of first rounders, as they are the only team to be swept and seemed to not even show up. A 107-101 loss booted them from contention. Anthony and Iverson each had over 20 points in the losing effort.

In coaching news, Pat Riley has resigned as coach of the Miami Heat after this year's extremely disappointing season. The Heat failed to make the NBA playoffs despite continued attempts by Riley to call out his team in the media. Riley will remain as team president for Miami. On the flipside, New Orleans Hornets coach Byron Scott is rumored to be the winner of this year's NBA Coach of the Year award. It may make more sense than Doc Rivers winning it, since Doc had a lot more All-star talent to work with. If Scott wins Coach of the Year, his young point guard Chris Paul may soon follow it up with the NBA MVP award.

The Eastern Conference 8 Spot

In the NBA's Eastern Conference, 7 of the 8 playoff spots have been claimed already, with several teams clinching last night. The Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers were among those who will be heading to the playoffs. I'll be the 1st to admit, I just didn't see this Sixers team being worthy of a playoff spot, but then again the East is nowhere near as tough and competitive as the Western Conference.

Here's how things look as of right now:

1 - Boston Celtics (60-15)
2 - Detroit Pistons (54-21)
3 - Orlando Magic (47-28)
4 - Cleveland (42-34)
5 - Philadelphia (39-37)
6 - Washington (39-37)
7 - Toronto (38-38)
8 - Atlanta Hawks (35-41)
-----------------------
(9) Indiana (32-44)
Games remaining: 6 (4 Home, 2 Away)

(10) New Jersey (31-45)
Games remaining: 6 (2 Home, 4 Away)

(11) Chicago (30-45)
Games remaining: 7 (4 Home, 3 Away)

Right now the Atlanta Hawks are perched at the 8 spot in the East. The New Jersey Nets seem to be falling out of contention despite having the talent of Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter. Losing a player the caliber of Jason Kidd obviously hurts quite a bit, as he ran the show and basically got the stats needed to help win games. They weren't exactly dominating with Kidd there though. So the Pacers, Bulls and Nets all have a legit shot at the final spot should Atlanta falter along the way. Atlanta, should they make that 8 spot, would be playing Boston first round of the playoffs. A possible preview of that will come April 12th in a regular season contest, in Atlanta. See more about the NBA Playoff picture at ESPN.com

Also in the East, the Milwauke Bucks have lost the services of their rookie Yi for the remainder of this NBA season. The Bucks along with Charlotte, the Knicks and Heat are all lottery bound.

Changing of the NBA Guards

We now have a shift of guards going on in the NBA from East to West, West to East. Just as All-Star weekend descended upon us, we saw Mike Bibby sent over to Atlanta in a multiplayer deal. This gives the Hawks a better floor general and greater chance at a playoff spot. While Bibby is a great player, he won't put the Hawks into the Finals this season. He makes for an extra scorer and passes well, but it's hard to see him leading them to the promised land. Playoffs? Yes. out of round 1? Probably not.

The other move is Jason Kidd is finally headed back to Dallas. The funniest part of this trade was that Keith Van Horn, a retired NBA player, had to make the decision to finalize the trade. How often is that seen in the NBA? Van Horn's contract amount allowed the trade to happen, so Van Horn returns to his original team, the Nets. It remains to be seen if he will play. Kidd arrives into Dallas to help Dirk and Josh Howard try to get back into the Finals and win it. Everyone knows Kidd immediately improves any squad he's on. The Nets have just shown us this season an example of lackluster play by the rest of the team despite Kidd's continued all-around floor leadership.

Both moves improve these teams easily. Kidd will definitely have the bigger impact of these two trades, which is a no brainer. The Nets will probably start to play more like the Heat, and the Hawks just may take the Nets' playoff spot away. The Mavericks are still considered amongst 3 or 4 West coast teams with a legitimate chance to make the NBA Finals and win it all.

2007 NBA Game Protest Upheld

Looks like a bit of interesting basketball history has been made. The Hawks vs Heat game from December 19th 2007 is now officially under review. Commissioner David Stern decided that the Hawks staff were "grossly negligent" in committing a scoring error which may have resulted in costing the Heat the Overtime game.

According to NBA.com's report:

"The Heat protested the game because, with 51.9 seconds remaining in overtime, the Hawks' scoring table personnel incorrectly disqualified the Heat's Shaquille O'Neal – asserting that a foul committed by O'Neal was his sixth foul of the game, when in fact it was only his fifth. The error occurred because the Hawks’ Official Scorer mistakenly attributed to O’Neal a foul at 3:24 remaining in the fourth period that was actually called against the Heat’s Udonis Haslem."

So the reasoning is that without Shaq, the Heat were at a disadvantage. As of right now each team's record has been edited by 1 game. 1 Loss was taken away from Miami, and the 1 win taken was away from the Hawks. There will be a replay of the final 51.9 seconds of the game prior to the teams' next meeting on March 8, 2008. This will determine the winner of the game, and let's hope there's proper officiating and stat keeping this time.

It's definitely an interesting story that we havent' seen recently in the NBA or any sports of recent times. ESPN's Pardon the Interruption team made the excellent point that all of the gambling money awarded on this game is definitely something to consider now. According to NBA.com, this is also the first protest granted since 12/14/82, when then NBA commish Larry O'Brien granted a protest by San Antonio Spurs over a 137-132 Double OT loss. Read more at NBA.com.

2 NBA Stars Flying High

In addition to Portland's Trailblazer, Brandon Roy, there appears to be two other rising stars in the NBA this season. Both men are aerial assassin/high-flyer types who have the ability to score in bunches and win games. They are Atlanta's Josh Smith and Memphis' Rudy Gay.

Gay already hit a game-winner this season to help defeat the San Antonio Spurs. The play was amongst the top NBA plays of 2007. Rudy had the Spur's Tim Duncan in his mug, yet rained a three pointer to seal the deal. Grizzlies win and Rudy's a hero. He's also been amongst top 10 plays all season for his impressive throwdowns. Many questioned his abilities when he first entered the league, as he came from a University of Connecticut team that didn't meet expectations. However, Gay is proving he's well worth the money as he keeps improving. The Grizzlies will begin to succeed, in time.

Josh Smith hit the NBA straight out of high school. He's the typical sink or swim player. Either he's going to prosper like several other straight from high school stars have, or he'll fall to the bottom of the bench. So far Smith has been swimming, well above water, and well above the rim. He used to be most known for impressive dunks, but now they go hand in hand with his scoring prowess and outside shooting. The Hawks are surprisingly considered in talks for the Eastern conference playoffs too. Thanks can go to Josh Smith as part of its talented group of young stars.

It would be great to see both players in a dunk contest showdown. While this isn't a measure of success in the NBA, they both provide a lot of excitement. and will surely continue to make their teams better.

TJ Ford Hits Court Hard

You may or may not have seen the unfortunate injury of TJ Ford as highlights were shown to open ESPN Sportscenter. In the Hawks vs. Raptors game Tuesday night, TJ Ford was on a fast break with Hawks rookie Al Horford trailing. Ford went for the layup and Horford went for the block. Unfortunately Horford's hand caught Ford ackwardly and Ford came down onto the court in what looked like bad whiplash. Ford's neck/head snapped back against the court, and Ford was taken out from the game on a stretcher in a neck brace. Chris Bosh indicated later it was a relief to see that TJ was moving after the fall.

Horford insisted the play wasn't dirty, but Horford was ejected from the game with a flagrant foul for this. He stated he was fooled by Ford's layup move and when he went to block the ball he caught Ford's head. He later said he's not a dirty type of player and hopes Ford is ok. It's unfortunate for TJ, because he had a previous spinal injury which he was able to recover from. That injury caused him to miss the entire 2004-05 season with neck surgery and recovery. Let's hope this isn't as serious and that TJ is back sooner rather than later.

Read Raptors' Ford takes a hard fall.

Raptors Game Oddities

The speculations about games affected and points shaved as well as bad calls made will probably be ongoing until the NBA presents more definitive evidence to the general public. MSNBC has a recent story presenting two "oddities" involving the final score in Toronto Raptors games, months apart. Alleged crooked ref Tim Donaghy was involved in both contests.

From MSNBC.com:

"There were strange circumstances regarding two Toronto Raptors games officiated by Tim Donaghy, the former referee who allegedly bet on NBA games for the past two seasons, the Toronto Sun reported.

On Nov. 24, the Atlanta Hawks defeated the Raptors 97-93 to cover the three-point spread. However, a two-point basket by the Raptors' T.J. Ford was not recorded. Had it been, the final score would have been 97-95 and the Hawks thus would not have covered the spread.

On Jan. 15, the Philadelphia 76ers were favoured to beat the Raptors. However, according to the New York Times, wagering on the Raptors was so heavy that Toronto eventually became a one-point favorite by game time. The Raptors went on to win 104-86.

After the Raptors-Hawks game, Toronto assistant coach Jay Triano told the scorer's table that the final score was incorrect, but the situation didn't get resolved, the Sun reported."