Ball Don’t Lie’s Two-on-Two All-Star Tournament continues. (No idea what I’m talking about? Click here.) Only six teams remain as we bring round three to a close. Vote away, people …

Match-up: Tony Parker and Tim Duncan vs. Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming.

How the Spurs got here: Defeated the Kings’ Martin and "Shock" (with 84% of the vote) and the Mavericks’ Kidd and Nowitzki (67%).
Last game’s
play-by-play,
courtesy
of "Phantom Balls of Earl": "Spurs, 12-10 (closer than it should be). TP dominates early, but halfway through Kidd gives in to Dirk’s impulse and they switch positions, Kidd posting up, backing TP way down, hits a few hook shots while Dirk stays way out, keeps Duncan out, and hits a few loooong 2s. Mavs storm back, but TP is too much. Duncan doesn’t attempt a shot the entire game."

How the Rockets got here: Defeated the Warriors’ Jackson and Biedrins (with 68% of the vote) and the Nuggets’ Billups and ‘Melo (58%).
Game
play-by-play,
courtesy
of "John Magus-C": "Who is gonna stick Yao? Chauncy? ‘Melo? Don’t be ridiculous. As soon as one of them misses a shot and Yao or T-Mac gets the rebound, it’s game over. No contest. Double down on Yao, and T-Mac makes the mid-range jumper. This team should be in the finals of this two-on-two tournament."

Hypothetical rules: Half-court, offense calls the
fouls, "winners out" to eleven (by ones and twos, natch), and you’ve
got to win by two. Also, no jeans allowed.

And if you’re in
a creative mood, leave us a short description of how you see this game
unfolding. Who jumps out to the early lead? Who nails the game winner? Break it down, Marv.

Voting will remain open until late Saturday night, MST.

Read full article…

Ball Don’t Lie’s Two-on-Two All-Star Tournament continues. (No idea what I’m talking about? Click here.) Only six teams remain as we bring round three to a close. Vote away ...

Match-up: Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol vs. Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge.

How the Lakers got here: Defeated the President and First Lady (with 64% of the vote) and the Suns’ Nash and Amar’e (73%).
Last game’s
play-by-play,
courtesy
of "Bell Curve": "Amar’e pouts. Nash sulks. Kobe seethes. Gasol is blissfully unaware of it all. Lakers win 11-8."

How the Blazers got here: Defeated the Thunder’s Durant and Green (with 66% of the vote) and the Hornets’ Paul and West (54%).
Game
play-by-play,
courtesy
of "theSchnoz": "DWest goes up for a 18 foot jumper and is blocked. The very next play, he clotheslines
Aldridge. Flagrant-2 and he’s gone. CP3
immediately pulls a groin trying to compensate for not having any help
and goes down in a heap. Blazers win 3-3 as NO forfeits due to disqualification."

Hypothetical rules: Half-court, offense calls the
fouls, "winners out" to eleven (by ones and twos, natch), and you’ve
got to win by two. Also, no jeans allowed.

And if you’re in
a creative mood, leave us a short description of how you see this game
unfolding. Who jumps out to the early lead? Who nails the game winner? Break it down, Marv.

Voting will remain open until late Saturday night, MST.

Read full article…

Sulaiman Folarin is the editor of JOCKlife.com, the voice of the athlete. This weekend, Sly drops by Ball Don’t Lie with some info on the All-Star uniforms the players will wear on Sunday …

It seems as though All-Star jerseys evolve every year, and on Sunday during the NBA All-Star Game, all players will don uniforms that are 30 percent lighter than any other.

Unfortunately, the All-Star swag in stores does not have the same lighter feel as the ones those special 12 guys will wear Sunday.

"All-Star is our concept car. It’s our testing ground," said Travis Blasingame, Business Director for Adidas Basketball Apparel. "We are able to do some things over the All-Star break that are probably not ready to roll out to the entire league."

But how is it possible the new uniforms are 30 percent lighter? I mean, I still remember those Starter and Champion jerseys from back in the day. Well, today’s basketball player talks about being light — if they can be light, they can be quicker.

Along with uniforms, Adidas, the manufacturer, launched a new TECHFIT compression base layer, which they say works with the outer uniform to improve your vertical jump by four percent. Crazy.

So crazy that I took on the task of "testing" the gear to see if it truly does what they claim it can.

Check out the video below.

Read full article…

The Basketball Jones
are on the loose in Phoenix. They’ll be posting various NBA All-Star
‘09 videos here on Ball Don’t Lie, all weekend long. Stay tuned.

Phoenix is worried. Worried that Saturday night’s Slam Dunk Contest might be a bit of a letdown. So with that in mind, we bought a net and hit the streets to make sure at least one memorable dunk contest was in the ‘09 books.

Subscribe to the video show on iTunes | Download the .m4v directly

Read full article…