Press Hop 2 - by DJ Steve Porter

DJ Steve Porter - "Press Hop" featuring A. Iverson

2011 NBA ALL-STAR STARTING LINE UPS ANNOUNCED

THE VOTES ARE IN!  

TNT has just announced the starting line ups for this years NBA All-Star game.

Back in November of 2010 I chose several players at each position that I thought should make the NBA All-Star teams this year in Los Angeles.  

Here is the link to my choices: http://addictedtoballin.blogspot.com/2010/11/2011-nba-all-star-ballot-released.html

Below are the official starters:

EAST STARTERS

Dwayne Wade..... Miami Heat

Derrick Rose..... Chicago Bulls

Dwight Howard..... Orlando Magic

LeBron James..... Miami Heat

Amar'e Stoudamire..... New York Knicks

WEST STARTERS

Kobe Bryant..... Los Angeles Lakers

Chris Paul..... New Orleans Hornets

Yao Ming..... Houston Rockets

Kevin Durant..... Oklahoma City Thunder

Carmelo Anthony..... Denver Nuggets

The reserves have yet to be announced.

Oklahoma City Thunder Highlights

2011 WESTERN CONFERENCE MID-SEASON REVIEW

1.  San Antonio Spurs...37-7

2.  Los Angeles Lakers...32-13

3.  Oklahoma City Thunder...28-15

4.  Dallas Mavericks...28-15

5.  New Orleans Hornets...29-16

6.  Utah Jazz...27-17

7.  Denver Nuggets...24-18

8.  Portland Trailblazers...25-20

The Conference know for years as "The Wild West", in my opinion may have lost some of it's star fire power this season compared to the often talked about Eastern Conference.  On the other hand, maybe it only seems that way since we are not used to seeing Eastern Conference teams dominate the headlines with such force.  It could also be that "The Wild West" is still intact and it's the "shiny and new East" that has simply caught up to the West, and all the excitement has us forgetting that 7 of the last NBA Champions were from the west, 4 for the Lakers and 3 for the Spurs.  Only time will tell if the times are actually changing or if I like many, are falling victim to the "shiny and new East" hype.

Top 3: Spurs, Lakers and Thunder

It's no coincidence that the Spurs and Lakers sit at the top of the Western standings considering the stat above regarding championships.  These 2 teams have had Hall of Fame coaching by the hands of Greg Popovich and Phil Jackson throughout their dominance of the West.  Along with great coaching, both the Spurs and Lakers have managed to keep their core players from leaving to other teams via free agency or trades.  Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker who play what some consider boring basketball, could care less what people think.  Their defense and text book offense is something that opponents still can't seem to overcome, even though they have been doing the same thing for years.

In the case of the Lakers, their future Hall of Famer, Kobe Bryant, continues to be the driving force behind Phil  Jackson's mentoring.  The addition of Pau Gasol a few years ago is what, in my opinion, brought back the Lakers back to dominance.  Kobe had been making trade demands unless something was done to improve the team, and ownership responded.  Management didn't stop at the acquisition of Gasol, they jumped on the chance to acquire defensive muscle in Ron Artetst from the Houston Rockets in a swap for Trevor Arizia.  The result, another championship for the Lakers.  With Derick Fisher and Lamar Odom still with the team and Andrew Bynum now on board, the Lakers are once again playoff bound and favorites for the title, again.

The 3rd place Oklahoma City Thunder is by far the biggest story in the west, but in no way a surprise.  The Oklahoma City Thunder put fear into the Lakers while losing 4-2 in a best of 7 playoff series last year.  With Kevin Durant and a much more confident Russell Westbrook leading a young, fast paced, defensive minded team, there was no doubt that they would end the season in a higher ranking than their 8th spot last year.  Seeing as how the Thunder are relatively new to the NBA, I encourage any fan to take the time to watch a few games or even some highlights from this team.  They are simply amazing to watch.  The fan base is also one of the best in the league.  Aside from nearly every game being sold out, rituals such as not sitting until the Thunder's first basket of the game, shows the fun, support and dedication the fans feel toward their team.

No disrespect to the Mavericks, Hornets, Jazz, Nuggets and Portland, but the truth of the matter is that besides Dallas and Utah, the listed teams hold a very slim chance of getting to the Western Conference Finals.  Hornets shot out of the gate with an amazing start to the season, but the team as whole would have a difficult time taking out any of the top 3 teams in a 7 game series. The Nuggets have been distracted all year with Carmelo Anthony trade rumors, and as fun as they are to watch, the depth from their bench leaves much to be desired.  Lastly, the injured roster of  the Portland Trailblazers  will simply run out of gas come playoff time, if they manage to maintain the final 8th spot.

2011 EASTERN CONFERENCE MID-SEASON REVIEW

1.  Boston Celtics...32-9

2.  Miami Heat...30-13

3.  Chicago Bulls...28-14

4.  Atlanta Hawks...28-15

5.  Orlando Magic...27-15

6.  New York Knicks...22-19

7.  Philidelphia 76ers...17-24

8.  Indian Pacers...16-23

With half of the NBA season behind us, it's now time to take a look at where teams are placed in the standings.  High expectations for some teams may have been realized, while others disappoint.  The opposite is also true when teams expected to do poorly defy the odds and put themselves in a position to make the playoffs. 

Top 5: Celtics, Heat, Bulls, Hawks and Magic

Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh all play for the top 2 teams in the east; The Celtics and Heat.  There are no real surprises there seeing as how the Celtics went 7 games last year in the NBA Finals versus the Lakers, and the Heat acquired Bosh and LeBron in the 2010 summer free agency.  The Boston Celtics as of today are 32-9 and the Miami Heat are 30-13.  The Heat had people expecting a period of struggle to start the season as Coach Spoelstra attempted to find a system in where 3 young All-Stars could co-exist, and struggle they did.  Most of their wins came at the hands of teams with losing records and they seemed unable to compete with winning teams.  However, over the last several weeks they have gone on long winning streaks with great defense and an unstoppable offense.  The Boston Celtics share the same pros as the Heat, great defense resulting in great transition offense, however they also share the same cons.  It will only take 1 or 2 key injuries to their star players to put them at risk during the playoffs.  The difference in my opinion lies with their benches.  The Celtics can rely a lot more on their bench than the Heat can and that might make all the difference come Spring.

When it comes to the Bulls, Hawks and Magic, if the playoffs started today, the match ups would be Chicago versus New York and Orlando versus Atlanta.  I would never try to predict the outcome of a newly rejuvenated Knicks team with the help of Amar'e Stoudamire, against the much improved Bulls and their unstoppable star Derrick Rose.  At the time of writing this, free agent acquisition Carlos Boozer is not playing due to an injury, and with him not being in the line up, they lose their interior presence.  Orlando swept Atlanta in 4 games during the 2010 NBA Eastern Conference Semi Finals, later losing to Boston.  The Orlando Magic have also made some new additions in Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu, which makes the once slept on Eastern Conference the one to watch during the playoffs.

NBA Lieberman One on One

Nancy Lieberman Info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Lieberman

NBA D-League (Texas Legends):http://www.nba.com/dleague/texas/

Cheryl Miller Info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheryl_Miller

Canada vs U.S.A.

It's been a while since my last blog entry due to the holidays, and during that time off I didn't have access to as many NBA games as I usually do.  Spending some time in the U.S., I learned first hand that there are more high school and college basketball games televised than there are NBA games.  There was no doubt marque NBA games televised nationally, but there was always a high school or college game available to watch, 24/7, on one of many local and nation wide stations.

There is a channel dedicated to the high school level athlete, covering wrestling, hockey, football and basketball in both the boys and girls divisions.  While watching the varsity teams run up and down the court, I couldn't help but notice the amount of support in the stands.  Not only were the stands filled out, the enthusiasm was nothing I have ever seen before.  Memories of my high school teams playing to no more than 30 people, if that, made me start to wonder how come Canadian high schools don't draw in the same type of crowd.  Not only are the games televised with color commentators, but the channel also has a recap of the days events in the world of all high school sports every night.

When it came to men's college basketball, the well known ESPN broadcast games daily.  There were a great deal of NCAA Football games aired as well, but with ESPN2 also available, neither was out done by the other.  Similar to the high school sports channel, ESPN and ESPN2 would replay earlier aired games throughout the night.

Now its clear that the U.S. population exceeds ours in Canada by nearly 300 million, and that number alone can account for the attention their school sports programs receive nationally.  The NCAA also has nearly 300 more teams than the CIS does, which again when you consider country size and population, it makes sense.  However, when you see all the attention that school athletics get from basic cable television, sports talk radio and magazines specializing in school athletics, its no wonder young aspiring Canadian athletes don't hesitate to flock south of the border.  I can only wonder if Canadian athletics received as much attention as it's U.S. counter part, would more interest and support be the result?  It's a natural progression from the couch to the stands for fans of any sport, and although there are many sports media outlets, radio stations and websites that play a huge part in getting the word out, I continue to ask myself; what, if anything can bring Canadian athletics, in this case basketball, to where it should be?