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Nine games tonight, which is a ton (usually you’ll get three
or four) for
a Monday night during football season. I guess, after having been burned by
a guy with the same name before, the NBA knew something about Derek Anderson
last summer that nobody else did.
There are plenty of good games on, as well. Quality and
quantity. Steve Nash and his Suns are in New
York with a chance to pull out a win over the team’s
old coach, while setting fire to Mitch Lawrence’s ridiculous
Sunday piece (The Suns are going to pay Steve Nash seven million dollars
next year not to play for them next year? And he’ll come to the Knicks for the
MLE? That makes total sense!).
I’m interested to see the new look Bobcats against the
sustained sturdiness of the Atlanta Hawks, the Nets and VC in Toronto
is always awesome, Utah (minus Carlos Boozer,
still) in Boston should be a tough one, and Orlando will end up
playing the late game for most against the Warriors.
But the one I’m looking forward to most is Denver
in Dallas. Dirk
Nowitzki’s been
honing his skills all week for this one, Kenyon Martin’s ready for his
close up, and I’m anxious to see if Jason Kidd in his mini-comeback year can
handle Chauncey Billups‘ ultra-efficiency.
Carmelo Anthony’s averaging about 29 a game over his last
three, Dirk’s at around 33 per game over his last six, and Jason Terry
continues to shoot the lights out for the Mavericks. Solid stuff.
Denver Nuggets:
16-7, 95.2 possessions per game (5th), 108.7 points scored per 100
possessions (8th), 102.7 points allowed per 100 possessions (5th).
Mystery Train.
Dallas Mavericks:
13-9, 92.8 possessions per game (10th), 107.6 points scored per 100
possessions (12th), 104.7 points allowed per 100 possessions (10th).
Mess of the Blues.
A look around the league and the web that covers it. It’s also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren’t always listed in order of importance. That’s for you, dear reader, to figure out.
C: Alana G. The NBA’s revamped "Amazing" campaign stars LBJ singing "Time After Time" to a mini bus.
PF: Sports Biz. Darren Rovell thinks the NBA’s "Big 3" domination is bad for the league.
SF: Hoop Doctors. There’s much more on the line tonight between the Suns and Knicks than just a win.
SG: The Sporting Blog. Oleksiy Pecherov gets paid $1 million a year to be a tourist. He loves it.
PG: Boston Globe. Mutombo hopes to return to the NBA for a final season, possibly with the Celtics.
6th: White NBA Players Who Look Like Abusive Husbands. Dwayne Schintzius. Wow.
7th: Sports On My Mind. Is Steve Nash taking on the personality of a system QB?
8th: TwinCities. If Wolves GM Jim Stack could trade places for a day with anyone, he’d like to be Jesus.
9th: The Knicks Blog. From here on out, all coaches have one common nightmare: playing the Knicks.
10th: YouTube, via SLAM. In case you missed it, watch D-Wade cross up Mayo after the jump …
15
Via ShareBro Goat, Both Teams Played Hard and Untitled Dallas Mavericks Project, comes quite possibly the greatest NBA photo of 2008: Dirk Nowitzki playing laser tag in a Santa hat. Yep. Best caption wins that planetary carpet. Good luck, folks.
After the jump, Doug Collins jokes with Ronnie.
Winner, Chris G:
Doug: "We never would have lost the ‘72 Olympic gold medal game if we had THIS guy on our team!!"
Gary: "Doug, in 1972 he wasn’t born yet. His parents hadn’t even gone to the Sadie Hawkins dance yet."
Doug: "Meh, whatever. Oh look, something shiny!!"
Runner-up, Iammachine:
"You hear him? He said ‘maybe’! He said ‘maybe’! Well that’s it, then. I’ll tell my agent to leak it to the press, and I should be your head coach in a matter of days …"
The Boston Celtics became the seventh NBA team to make a coaching change before Christmas this season, deciding they had to re-fire Chris Ford despite him not coaching the Celtics since 1995.
As reported by J.E. Skeets, citing sources near and dear to his heart, Ford was informed of his re-dismissal Monday afternoon, just a day after falling asleep in front of the television watching NFL football.
Current Celtics head coach Doc Rivers will "replace" Ford on an interim basis, though Boston is believed to be intrigued with bringing in former Wizards coach Eddie Jordan.
The move definitely caught the Celtics by surprise.
"Didn’t we fire Coach Ford some ten years ago?" Celtics captain Paul Pierce asked reporters.
President of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge said he met with Ford, describing the former Celts player as a "gentleman" and "class act," even if he was "a little confused."
"I felt we were not firing coaches the way the rest of the league was firing coaches," Ainge said. "I didn’t feel that the guys on our bench were worried about their job security. Hopefully this move will change that."
In five seasons with Boston, (’90-’95), Ford was 222-188. He was the Eastern All-Star coach in 2001.
Ford is the seventh NBA coach to be fired this season. So far, the Oklahoma City Thunder (P.J. Carlesimo), Washington Wizards (Jordan), Toronto Raptors (Sam Mitchell), Minnesota Timberwolves (Randy Wittman), Philadelphia 76ers (Maurice Cheeks) and Sacramento Kings (Reggie Theus) have changed coaches.
