2007-08 NBA Blog

                       By: Aaron Fischman

 

Shaq Returns to the West - 2/8/08

On February 7, 2008 it was made official. The Miami Heat dealt the Diesel, Shaquille O'Neal, cross-conference to the Phoenix Suns. In return, the Heat acquired forward Shawn Marion and PG Marcus Banks. Shaquille O'Neal is slow and clearly not even close to what he used to be. But yet, for some reason, I still have hope for the Suns this season.

I differ with most people in my opinion of the trade. Some may call me crazy, but I can't count out the man with a hundred nicknames. Shaq has done too much in his career to just be tossed aside like this. In fact, the trade may allow the Suns to win the Western Conference (which is filled with a great deal of parity). The addition of O'Neal may revitalize the Phoenix locker room, which appeared to be disrupted by Shawn Marion and the trade rumors. The Suns have been a great team since Steve Nash's arrival, but they have yet to make the NBA Finals. Their run-n-gun offense always seems to stall before the Finals.

Shaq's inside presence, when coupled with Amare Stoudemire's prowess, will be interesting to see. Shaq is a proven winner. And while it is true that his skills are fading fast, he may still have another championship left in him. Marion is a better, and more versatile, defender but Shaquille's arrival gives the Suns a real center for once. Although Shaq will definitely slow down the Suns' offense, this may not necessarily be a bad thing. The Suns can actually excel in a half-court offense with two skilled big men (Shaq and Amare) and plenty of three-point shooters (Nash, Raja Bell and Leandro Barbosa).

Shaq looks like he'll fit ok in the short term. However, this trade is horrible for the Suns in the long-run. While I understand the philosophy that says the Suns wanted to get something for Marion (instead of letting him leave as a free agent) I really do think that that scenario is better than being stuck with O'Neal's huge contract for two more years. If I managed the Suns, I would rather have taken my chances on this summer's best free agents (Gilbert Arenas or Elton Brand, for example). The Suns will have to pay Shaq's $20 million salary for the next two years. By the time Shaq's contract expires he will be 38, so expect his skills to continue to decline after this season.

For this trade to be a smart one, the Suns will have to win the title this year. I don't think they'll win it all. But they do have a chance.

 

A Rare Occurrence, a Great +/- Rating and Size Doesn't Matter - 1/12/08

On Friday, January 11th, the abysmal Miami Heat visited New Orleans. Miami came into the game with a 4-16 road record (8-27 overall) and a nine game losing streak. The Hornets, on the other hand, entered with a 23-12 overall record and a 10-7 record when playing in their own arena. Few expected the Heat to win -- and they didn't -- but the game will be remembered for years to come. This game had something I've never seen before: all three Hornet point guards made every single one of their field goal and three-point attempts.

Here are the final numbers for all three New Orleans point guards:

Chris Paul: 7-7 FG, 2-2 3pt FG, 16 assists
Bobby Jackson: 9-9 FG, 7-7 3pt FG, 4 assists
Jannero Pargo: 4-4 FG, 1-1 3pt FG, 7 assists

Of the Hornet point guards, Bobby Jackson's performance was the most remarkable of all. He made all seven of the three-pointers he attempted. Not only that, but his +/- rating was +42. In other words, when Jackson was on the court, the Hornets had a 42-point advantage over the Heat. I'm a huge fan of the +/- stat because it shows how important a player is to his team.

My use of the word HUGE brings up a good point. Each of these point guards is undersized, according to NBA standards, yet they torched the Heat. Chris Paul is an even 6'0", while Jackson and Pargo are each listed at 6'1". Height is important, but I do want to point out that, at times, it is overrated.

Even though these point guards didn't miss one shot all night, that does not mean that they neglected their teammates. The three PGs combined for 27 assists and Pargo racked up 7 assists in under 20 minutes. Collectively, they only committed 6 turnovers, but 5 of them were credited to Paul. Let's give CP a break though, he did have 16 assists and his +/- was +21.

 

Kaman Leads Clippers Past Kings - December 8, 2007

To be honest, I didn't expect the Kings to lose to the Clippers on Friday night. But I can't say I'm completely shocked, either. When Kevin Martin left Tuesday's game with a strained groin, I knew that the Kings would be affected. The way I see it, these Kings need two prominent scorers to win. I consider Brad Miller, Beno Udrih and the others to be role players. Before Martin's injury, the two scorers had been Ron Artest and Kevin Martin. In the time before Artest's suspension ended, it was Martin and John Salmons. Salmons was doing well in that role. Now, he will have to step up again. Francisco Garcia could also fill in here, but I don't think he's ready yet. But Salmons can be the second big-time scorer in Sacramento. He has to be!

Beno Udrih is a solid PG for this team (and he can score, too). But I feel that Udrih is more of a table-setter. He sets up his teammates. Brad Miller's role is to get rebounds (at least he SHOULD be getting rebounds). Those two fill their roles and Ron Artest scores. What I'm saying is that, at least until Mike Bibby or Kevin Martin returns, Salmons will have to start scoring like he did at the beginning of the year.

Friday night's home loss at the hands of the struggling Clippers further serves to illustrate my point. Ron Artest got "his" as expected, with 21 points. Artest shot poorly from the field, but he can't be expected to do everything on the offensive end. Mikki Moore and Beno Udrih came in second in scoring with 13 points apiece. Salmons only had 10 points. I do like that Salmons attempted 13 shots in the game, but only four of those thirteen went through the hoop.

It can be argued that Salmons did fill up the stat sheet in other areas though. He had 10 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal; so it is true that he contributed in other ways. I will be sure to send him a holiday gift box for those numbers, but the fact is that Salmons couldn't aid Artest in scoring. And Artest's contribution alone is not enough to help his team win.

Foul trouble was another reason that the Kings could not advance to 8-3 at home. Brad Miller fouled out, while Artest and Moore had five fouls each; Salmons finished with four fouls.

The Kings blew an 11 point halftime lead, but the Clippers did earn the victory. Chris Kaman led the way for the Clips (as he has been doing all year long) with 26 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks. The Big Silly missed only three shots all game. Corey Maggette also contributed by getting to the foul line fourteen times. He missed three of his first four free thows, but he made nine of his last ten, when it mattered most.

Tim Thomas, Ruben Patterson and Quentin Ross all played reasonably well. It was truly a team effort but I think Cuttino Mobley's performance tipped the scale. Mobley made five of his seven field goal attempts, which marks the first time that he has made at least half of his field goals since November 7. Let's analyze Mobley's statistics in the first four games of the season (before his injury) and compare those with his numbers since returning to the team.

First four games:
Team Record: 4-0
31 of 50 field goal attempts (62%)

Then Mobley missed the team's next two games, both of which were losses.

In the next eleven games:
Team record (over that span): 2-9
Mobley made 35 of his 110 field goal attempts (31.8%)

Mobley was playing horrible in those eleven games. His twelfth game since returning didn't start well. Mobley missed his first two shots but finished with five consecutive made shots (5-7 on the night). So let's add up the numbers in another way. Let's compare "Cat" Mobley's field goal percentages in team wins versus team losses.

In Clipper wins, Mobley is shooting 58.7%. He has made 44 of 75 shots in games that the Clippers have won.

In Clipper losses, Mobley is shooting 29.3%. In those games he has made 27 of 92 shots.

Ok...so let's go around the league.

The Boston Celtics won again on Friday night to advance to 10-0 at home and 16-2 overall. Doc Rivers is doing a great job of resting the Big Three (The Truth, The Big Ticket and Ray-Ray). In three recent blow-outs against the Knicks, the Cavaliers and the Raptors, Rivers has given his best players a ton of rest. By the way, I'm counting the 80-70 defeat of Cleveland as a blowout because the game was a sure-win with LeBron out. It is wise of Doc to rest his guys now, because none of the Big Three is in his twenties anymore and they will need to stay healthy until June.

The Charlotte Bobcats have lost seven in a row; this after starting 6-4. They face the Cavaliers on Sunday, who have a losing streak of their own (five games). In the first of those five losses, LeBron left with a sprained index finger. The Cavaliers are completely lost without their star player. Daniel Gibson has been getting a great deal of playing time as a result of LeBron's injury. Gibson looks good, but he has a long way to go.

Chris Paul had an unbelievable night on Friday. Paul scored 43 points, dished out 9 assists, grabbed 5 rebounds and swiped 4 steals. He also logged 48 minutes. Most importantly, Paul forced OT and ultimately won the game with a tough lay-up in traffic. It was a memorable performance by CP, but I also have to give credit to the Grizzlies. Memphis fought back on the road against a much better team. Not only that, but Memphis played 53 minutes with a rotation of only eight players. They came within two points of forcing a second overtime. What a feisty team!

The Warriors have won eleven of their last thirteen games. Guess who those two losses came against. Orlando and Boston. Those teams don't lose to anyone. The rest of the league needs to look out for the Golden State Warriors.

I feel bad for Minnesota. The Timberwolves are 2-15 and they lose in all kinds of ways. They get blown out some days and then sometimes they lose like they did on Thursday night (when Joe Johnson of the Hawks stunned them with a buzzer-beater). The final in that game was 90-89 and it was Minnesota's fifteenth loss. They could taste win #3, but it was not to be. On the bright side, I want to recognize the efforts of rookie Corey Brewer. Brewer did not shoot especially well on Thursday night, but he did have 18 rebounds. Eighteen! Brewer played over 44 minutes and recorded 5 assists and 4 steals. This guy is going to be good. Now, if only he could shoot consistently...

 

Kings On a Roll, But Can They Win On the Road? - December 5, 2007

Last week, I ended my entry with a promise to elaborate more on the assertion that the L.A. Clippers have a better chance of making the playoffs than the Sacramento Kings. Now, I can't do that. I have changed my mind. While I'm fairly confident that neither team will make it to the postseason, the Kings have a better chance of doing so.

I was going to tell you that Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy is a better pro coach than Reggie Theus. I was going to talk about the Kings' problem on the road. The young Kings wearing down as the season progresses was going to be another reason. But now these reasons don't hold up because the Clippers are officially terrible.

Los Angeles has lost six games in a row and eight of their last nine. Things aren't going well, to say the least. Although the Clippers are officially terrible, they aren't nearly as bad as the Seattle Sonics. That's why I am expecting them to beat Seattle tonight, even though it's a road game. After that, look for the Kings to dismantle the Clippers on Friday. It may be a close game for a while, but expect Sacramento to beat L.A. by double digits.

Getting back to the Kings, they have a poor record at 7-10. They have an even worse than "poor" record on the road, at 0-7. On the positive side, they are 7-3 at home, beating the Pistons, Spurs, Rockets and Jazz recently. These are four very good teams that Sacramento has defeated. In three of those four games, the Kings won by double digits.

Against the Jazz on Tuesday night, the Kings scored 43 points in the fourth quarter on their way to beating another quality team. This information baffles me. I can't make sense of it. How can a team beat Utah but go winless in seven road games? Does the same team travel on the road? Or are players lost along the way like luggage at airports?

I am a statistics fanatic, so I'll throw some stats about the Kings at you and hope that they stick. Here are team averages that help to describe the differences in Sacramento's play at home, compared to their road play.

On the road: The Kings allow 108.9 points per game while only scoring 94.7 points. On average, they lose by a margin of 14 points.

At home: The Kings allow 100.5 points per game but score 105.3 points of their own. That means an average margin of victory of nearly 5+ points at home.

Analysis: The Kings aren't playing particularly good defense -- whether they are at home or not -- but they average nearly 110 points allowed per game on the road. That is horrendous! Even more of a discrepancy between home games and road games is shown in the Kings offensive points production. Sacramento averages 10.5 less points per game on the road. The Kings will attempt to improve those road numbers this month, but it's going to be tough. In mid-December, they play five consecutive road games.

Now that we've analyzed team trends on the road, let's go to some individual performance numbers. Center Brad Miller has home and road stats that are very different; maybe Miller is the key to success for Sacramento. Take a look:

Brad's road averages: 10.3 points, 5.3 rebounds (bad), 1.7 assists (bad), 1.0 blocks, 0.3 steals, 2.2 turnovers, 1.5 free throws attempted (bad) and 77.8% free thow shooting.

Brad's home numbers: 11.8 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.6 blocks, 0.7 steals, 1.7 turnovers, 5.1 free throws attempted and 91.3% from the free throw line.

Notice the difference between home and away, especially in rebounds and free throws attempted. After looking at these numbers, my head feels clear. I know part of the reason why the Kings are losing every game on the road...or so I thought.

Ironically, every single statistic for Brad Miller is worse on the road, except for his field goal percentage. This makes no sense. His shooting percentage is an astonishing 13 percentage points higher when playing on the road. So why is Miller's scoring down in road games? It's those gosh darn free throws. Miller needs to find a way to get to the line more often on the road.

So, to sum it all up, the Sacramento Kings can't win on the road because of the referees. The refs are colluding in order to prevent Brad Miller from shooting free throws in cities other than California's capital. I'm just kidding (if you couldn't tell). But whether or not it is Brad Miller's fault does not matter. It's a team game and if the Kings want to play in late April, they have to win on the road.

 

Kings Defeat Spurs by 13 at Home - November 27, 2007

The Sacramento Kings lost three in a row before Monday night, but I don't want, or need, to discuss those games. The Kings' Monday night victory over the Spurs (112-99) was a great win.

Coming into that game, San Antonio had lost only two other times all year and those losses were to the Rockets and the Mavericks. So, the question now becomes: "Are the Kings as good as the Mavericks and the Rockets?" The answer is clearly no, but who cares? I don't care. Kings fans don't care. Sacramento got a win at home and everyone is happy...at least for now.

Here is a list of why the Kings won on Monday:

1) Beno Udrih was extra motivated to play against the Spurs (who had traded him away in the off-season). [Udrih finished with 27 pts, 5 ast and 4 reb].

2) As a team, the Kings shot 55% from the field and 42% from beyond the arc.

3) Mikki Moore made eight of his nine field goal attempts for a percentage of 88.9%.

4) Brad Miller had his fourth double-double of the year (the Kings are 4-0 in these games).

5) Ron Artest played well (20 pts, 6 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl).

6) Rookie Spencer Hawes played well in his 10 minutes on the floor (7 pts, 3 reb, 1 blk).

7) Sacramento only missed two free throws.

8) San Antonio played the night before (a 116-101 victory over Seattle).

9) Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili were held all held in check (a combined 36 points).

10) For a long time, Fabricio Oberto led the Spurs in scoring and, by the end of the game, he had only two fewer points than Tim Duncan.

Tonight, Wednesday, the Kings will face the red hot Golden State Warriors. The Warriors have won six of their last seven games and are fresh off a defeat of the Suns on Monday. Hey, Kings fans...savor this big win over the Defending Champions and wait, at least until later today to worry about the Warriors game.

The beginning of December is going to be a big challenge. I keep saying that nothing really matters other than this win over the Spurs but I do think the Kings have a solid team. Unfortunately, I really don't envision a playoff run. It is possible, but highly unlikely.

If I'm right about the Kings this season, wins like this may be few and far between. In fact, they may be so rare that they need to be treated as such. Think of this game as a winning lottery ticket. Go cash that ticket in Sacramento, but don't expect to win any more. You may win some of the small scratchers in the future, but don't expect to hit the jackpot again.

Just to clear up any confusion on the topic, if the Kings played the Clippers (at this point in time), the Kings would win at least seven out of ten times. I'm not saying that the Clippers are better than the Kings right now; as they are clearly not. However, I do believe that the Clippers have a better chance of making the playoffs.

I'll explain more in my next blog.

 

Strange Day in the NBA - November 26, 2007

Monday, November 26, 2007 was a strange day in the NBA. In fact, strange is a huge understatement! Here are seven out-of-this-world events that made Monday so wacky:

1) Dallas lost at home for the first time all year. [110-98 to the Washington Wizards].

2) The Mavericks made all 29 of their free throws, yet still lost by 12 points.

3) The Knicks won their second game in a row by beating the Utah Jazz (who came into the game with a 10-4 record).

4) The Timberwolves beat the Hornets 103-94. It was their first road win of the season. Not only that, but they were 1-10 before the game. On the other hand, the Hornets came in 10-5. Even more remarkable was the fact that Minnesota was ahead by 21 at the half.

5) Marko Jaric and Sebastian Telfair led Minnesota in scoring on Monday night. Neither had scored 20 in a game all season before that.

6) The Warriors scored 45 points in one quarter (the first quarter of their victory over the Suns).

7) The Suns and Spurs both lost. The teams were 11-2 and 12-2, respectively, before their losses. Both still sit atop the Western Conference after Monday (which is not surprising).

In other news, the Los Angeles Clippers are a mess right now; and it's sad. They are so undermanned; but the effort is still there. Los Angeles has lost five of their last six games, including their last three in a row.

With that said, here is some good news from the Clippers' only win since November 15: they beat the Nuggets on Tuesday, November 21.

The Nuggets played pretty poorly (and it was a home game for L.A.), but the win was still nice. Chris Kaman finished with a very average 17 points; but he did record 21 rebounds. The effort from The Big Silly (a.k.a. Kaveman) was phenomenal, but not unexpected. What was surprising was Quentin Ross' three conversions from beyond the arc. Ross had only attempted a total of three 3-pointers in his previous nine games.

In addition, eleven Clippers scored in the game (which is pretty rare). It was a tremendous team effort.

Let's get to the losses, now. The Suns, Hornets and Rockets have all defeated the Clippers within the last week. None of the final scores were that close, but the Clippers were very much in all of those games.

The Clippers actually gave the Suns a good scare for the first few quarters, and part of the third. However, in Phoenix, against such a depleted team, it was seemingly inevitable for the Suns to pull ahead and stay there.

The Hornets game was back-and-forth for the first half, but the Clippers lack of scoring options revealed itself in the third quarter.

Against the Rockets (on Monday, November 26), the Clippers began to blow it in the third quarter once again. Chris Kaman opened the game with 10 points in the first quarter but he couldn't maintain his play throughout the whole game. Kaman did score 22 points, outscoring Yao Ming, but he only made 35% of his shots. As a whole, the Clippers only scored 71. Although Kaman outscored Yao, Tracy McGrady's 36 points were too much to handle for the Clips. They would go on to lose 88-71.

Now for the good news: Corey Maggette is back. If you need any other good news, you need to check out the Sacramento Kings section of my blog [editor's note: check the post above this one]. I don't have anything else positive to say about the Clippers. I am fairly sure that they will lose again on Friday in Denver. If they do indeed lose that game, they will finish November with a record of 6-7 (a month in which they began 4-0).

Kings & Clippers Head in Different Directions - November 21, 2007

Since my last blog, the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Clippers have gone in opposite directions. While the Kings are nearly at full strength, with the exception of Mike Bibby, the Clippers are even more banged up than they had been before. Corey Maggette is now out with a hamstring strain and rookie Al Thornton has a sprained ankle. If that wasn't enough, defensive specialist Quentin Ross has a bruised knee. Thornton and Ross should be close to returning, but the widespread rumor is that Maggette is going to be sidelined for a few more weeks. Corey is the longest-tenured Clipper, as well as the heart and soul of the ballclub.

The Bulls blew out the Clip Show 92-73 last Saturday in Los Angeles. Ironically, the Clippers won in Chicago earlier in the season. But that was a different team...a team with heart...a team with Mobley, Maggette and Thornton completely healthy. This was the Clippers' third game in November in which they scored under 85 points. Only one player had over 15 points and that was center Chris Kaman. Very questionably, Mike Dunleavy played Cuttino Mobley for 45 minutes. Mobley doesn't appear to be completely healthy (his groin is still sore) and this was a game that was never really close. Ideally, the Clippers would love to rest Mobley until his groin fully heals, but they can't afford to do that while Maggette is out. Cat, as Mobley is affectionately called, needs to play, but 45 minutes is way too excessive in a blowout loss.

The Clippers went 1-2 since the last blog entry. It hasn't been pretty. They barely edged out an 84-81 victory at home against the feuding Knicks on Wednesday, November 14. Then the Clippers lost the next two games on back-to-back nights against the Warriors and Bulls. Part of that schedule was bad luck; they did play two underachieving teams that were hungry for victories. The Warriors hadn't won until that night and the Bulls only had one win up until they played the Clips. Although the Clippers played teams with extra motivation, I contend that they would've lost those games anyway. Neither game was close.

Things don't get easier from here for the Clips. Their next five opponents are the Nuggets (twice), the Suns, the Hornets and the Rockets. Three of these next five games are at home; but that doesn't seem like it will help much at this point. The way I see it, L.A. will be lucky to win two of these next five...a record of 7-7 doesn't look that bad for an Elton Brand-less team!

On the other hand, things are really looking up for the Sacramento Kings. Their record is 4-7, yet I have reason for optimism; albeit cautious optimism. The blog week didn't begin well for Sacramento, who lost to Minnesota 108-103. Timberwolves Rashad McCants, Al Jefferson and Antoine Walker combined for 75 points (more than the whole Clipper team against the Bulls by the way). The Kings scored 34 points in the final quarter, but they also gave up 37. Each quarter, the Kings gave up progressively more points. The game did count as a big fat L, but all was not lost. In the game against Minnesota, Beno Udrih had his first quality game of the season, pitching in 17 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds.

Following this loss, the Kings won two in a row at home (against the Knicks and Pistons). The Kings defeated the Knicks in double overtime on Friday. They were carried by Kevin Martin, who recorded a double-double. The young K. Mart had 43 points. Believe it or not, the Kings scored 16 in double OT alone. 123-118 was the final score. Unlike earlier in the seaon, Martin had a secondary scorer to support him. Ron Artest scored 28 points (not 43, but it sure helped).

Detroit was the next opponent for the Kings to take care of; and they certainly did. Sacramento handled Detroit 105-95, even with Chauncey Billups playing. The most surprising feature of the game was that neither Ron Artest nor Kevin Martin scored over 20 points; Beno Udrih did. Who? Beno Udrih. He's the guy I mentioned earlier. Get used to him because, without Bibby, Udrih gives the team solid point guard play.

The Kings lost to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night, but they played very hard. They actually outscored the Suns by 10 in the final quarter. When Amare Stoudemire missed two free throws with the score 100-98, the Kings had a chance of at least forcing overtime. With 33 points, and a hot hand, Ron Artest was determined to take the last shot. He missed and the Kings lost. It was a valient effort. The same teams will play again on November 21, but this time the game will be played in Phoenix.

Although the Kings are playing well, don't expect them to reach .500 anytime soon. The team's upcoming schedule is tough, to say the least. They may actually reach the .500 plateau if they can switch conferences. This may happen if the Maloof brothers move the team to Connecticut. But hey...it wasn't me who started this rumor.

 

Sacramento Kings Post - November 13, 2007

The Sacramento Kings have begun their season as I expected...horribly. Their second and third leading scorers from a season ago have not played. One of them, point guard Mike Bibby, probably won't return from his thumb injury until January. The other, Ron Artest, hasn't played because he was serving a seven-game suspension.

It is no wonder this team has struggled; shooting guard Kevin Martin has had to do everything. He's doing a fine job -- averaging a career-high 28 points per game -- but his field goal percentage has dropped to a low 43%. Martin and guard John Salmons are the team's only reliable scorers, but it is clear that the Kings have been the K-Mart show so far (and, no, I'm not talking about Kenyon).

Ron Artest's return from suspension on Wednesday will take the pressure off of Martin and Salmons, but it won't transform the team into a winner. Yes, the Kings will improve, but they will still be far from playoff contention.

In other news, new coach Reggie Theus has no faith in Shareef Abdur-Rahim. The veteran power forward has played only nine minutes combined in the past four games. In Monday's loss to the Utah Jazz, Abdur-Rahim had two assists and two rebounds in six minutes. Coach Theus needs to play the grizzled vet more often.

Seven games into the season, the Kings are 2-5 with wins coming against sub-par teams like the Timberwolves (0-5) and the Supersonics (0-7). It's entirely possible that the Kings could be 0-7 if they had not played such bad teams.

Coming up, the team plays two "winnable" games in a row when they meet the Timberwolves again (this time in Minnesota) and the Knicks (at Arco Arena). These games will be very important because Sacramento's schedule is murderous after that. They play Detroit, Phoenix (twice) and San Antonio. Portland is also mixed in there, but that should also be a tough game.

There's not much hope for the Kings, other than the fact that their first round pick, Spencer Hawes, is returning soon. He won't make the team a contender, but this rebuilding year may develop him into a solid NBA player. Upon his return, Theus should let the kid play and take minutes away from the struggling Mikki Moore.

 

Los Angeles Clippers Post - November 13, 2007

The Los Angeles Clippers appeared on the radars of many NBA fans when they jumped out to a 4-0 start. The league should take notice because there is a solid team in L.A. and I do mean team. Los Angeles' recent losses don't mean much when you consider how decimated by injuries they have been. Elton Brand and Shaun Livingston began the season injured, but Chris Kaman, Cuttino Mobley, Corey Maggette, Ruben Patterson and others have picked up the slack.

Mobley hasn't played in either of the team's losses, but he is expected to return very soon from a hip injury. The team lost a game this week to Cleveland that they could have easily won. Mobley's fourth quarer scoring would have been a huge boost if he hadn't been injured.

Point guard Brevin Knight has been an essential part of the team. So far he is averaging 4.6 assists in limited minutes. More importantly he's able to relieve the aging Sam Cassell. It's so important for the Clippers to have a "pass-first" point guard who can give Sam I Am a rest. Knight has done a good job of finding the open man.

Chris Kaman has also been invaluable to the team's success. Kaman is second in the Western Conference in rebounding. In each of the team's four wins Kaman has grabbed over ten boards. However, he has only earned seven and eight rebounds, respectively, in the team's losses. Kaman has done well but he's just relied upon too much. It would be wrong to say that The Big Silly's game has been slipping. He's scored over 20 points in each of the losses.

Corey Maggette has also been huge for Los Angeles. Maggette gets to the free throw line 9.8 times per game and makes almost 90% of those attempts. Maggette, Kaman and Mobley (when he's healthy) have been the only constants on the team. Tim Thomas has been very streaky. He has great games and he has terrible ones. Sam Cassell is inconsistent, too. Age is evidently a factor for the soon-to-be 38 year-old. He has had two monster games but has disappeared in the other four. He always gets his assists, but his scoring comes and goes.

The Clippers face the New York Knicks on Wednesday at the Staples Center. Mark my words...they will win.

An Ode to the Elderly Ballers - November 11, 2007

Sam Cassell

Age: 37 years old
Year of birth: 1969
15th NBA season, 7th NBA team
Nickname: "Sam I Am"
Celebrity look-a-like: Spielberg's ET

Notes:

Has never averaged 20 points per game in any of his 15 seasons, but came close several times. Won two championships in his first three seasons and hasn't won one since. Aspires to be a head coach in the NBA.

Grant Hill

Age: 35 years old
Year of birth: 1972
13th NBA season, 3rd NBA team

Notes:

Selected third overall in the 1994 NBA drafted. Shared Rookie of the Year honors with Jason Kidd. Helped the Dream Team win Olympic Gold in Atlanta in 1996. Played in only four games in his first year in Orlando and only 14 the following year (followed by 29 and 0 game seasons). Appeared in Nickelback's recent "Rockstar" music video.

Shaquille O'Neal

Age: 35 years old
Year of birth: 1972
16th NBA season, 3rd NBA team

Notes:

Drafted first overall in 1992 by the Orlando Magic. Is a 14-time All-Star. Won four championships and three NBA Finals MVP awards in Los Angeles with the Lakers. Averaged at least 21 points and 10 rebounds per game in each of his first 13 NBA seasons. Appeared in eight movies, the most recent being Scary Movie 4.

 

Dikembe Mutombo and Alonzo Mourning

Ages: 41 and 37, respectively

Each player has: Attended Georgetown, played for the New Jersy Nets, made his respective NBA All-Rookie First Team, won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award twice and holds a career average of 2.8 blocks per game.

 

Bruce Bowen and Brent Barry

Ages: 36 and 35, respectively

Each player: Was born in 1971, is a current member of the San Antonio Spurs, won an NBA championship last season and has a reputation for shooting well from beyond the three-point arc.

 

Eddie Jones and Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway

Age: Each is 36

Each player: Has been a member of the Miami Heat, holds a career average of 15.4 points per game, was a teammate of Shaquille O'Neal and has been named an All-Star at least three times over the course of his career.

 

Thanks also to the following players (all 35 years and older) who make us all feel young again:

Seven-time NBA champion Robert Horry (San Antonio)
Aaron Williams (LAC)
Lindsey Hunter (Detroit)
Darrell Armstrong (New Jersey)
Bo Outlaw (Orlando)
Darrick Martin (Toronto)
Eric Piatkowski (Phoenix)
Kurt Thomas (Seattle)