Schultz files lawsuit to undo sale
Last week, Richard Yarmuth, an attorney with Seattle-based law firm Yarmuth Wilsdon Calfo, said former Sonics owner Howard Schultz wanted to rescind the July 2006 sale of the team. That lawsuit was filed today. Here's the story from AP: Former Seattle SuperSonics owner Howard Schultz has filed a…
April 22, 2008, 11:45 PM ET from Sonics Insider by Frank Hughes
Lakers preseason schedule
EL SEGUNDO — The Lakers, who will have training camp at their El Segundo facility next season, have scheduled two exhibition games for the Honda Center in Anaheim. The Oct. 7 game against Utah at 7 p.m. is the exhibition opener; the Lakers will return to face Charlotte at 7 p.m. on Oct.…
April 22, 2008, 9:30 PM ET from Lakers: Locker Talk by Kevin Ding
Lakers take Game 1, 128-114
The Denver Nuggets played the Lakers three times in the regular season and lost all three. Only one game was close. And that was before Pau Gasol joined the Lakers. The Nuggets got their first look at Gasol in a Lakers uniform and the look was too much to handle. Gasol scored a game-high 36 points…
April 22, 2008, 9:15 PM ET from Lakers: Locker Talk by Kevin Ding
Rick Fox in the house
Jack was seated. So was Dyan. Rick Fox was in the house, along with 18,000 others who filled Staples Centers to the rafters with cheers, chants and a few verses of “I Love L.A.” All were there to see the Lakers kick off their 2008 playoff drive against the Denver Nuggets. Minutes into…
April 22, 2008, 9:15 PM ET from Lakers: Locker Talk by Kevin Ding
ROY, MIP and COY rankings
We Rite Goode has Rookie, Most Improved Player and Coach of the Year rankings, as voted on by basketball bloggers.
April 22, 2008, 9:00 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Lakers lead, 97-78 after three quarters
That slip in the second quarter? Just a minor difficulty. The Lakers righted whatever offensive trouble they had in the first half and led, 97-78, after three quarters. Maybe it was an “inspired” speech by Phil Jackson. Perhaps another talking to by assistant Brian Shaw about how the guards weren’t…
April 22, 2008, 9:00 PM ET from Lakers: Locker Talk by Kevin Ding
Bus strands Denver players
The first of two Denver Nuggets’ buses was stranded on the Santa Monica Freeway 15 minutes after it left its Westside hotel because of popping noises and a lot of black smoke. “There was a pop, black smoke, another pop and more black smoke,” said team publicist Eric Sebastian.…
April 22, 2008, 9:00 PM ET from Lakers: Locker Talk by Kevin Ding
Pistons and Sixers kick off the playoffs
It’s weird — you wait all season for the playoffs to start, and when they finally get here, it seems like they snuck up on you. (Or is it just me?) I answered some questions about the series the other day for Brian at the aptly-named Philly blog Depressed Fan, and I should point out if…
April 22, 2008, 8:45 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Lakers lead, 58-56, at halftime
Andrew Bynum wasn’t in the game, still sidelined by a knee problem. But where was Kobe? He was there, but not much in the box score. Bryant was 1 for 9 with one assist through the first 19 minutes, 43 seconds of the game, and he didn’t score his second basket with 4:17 left in the second…
April 22, 2008, 8:45 PM ET from Lakers: Locker Talk by Kevin Ding
The keys: Kobe’s distribution, hustle on D
So much of what the Lakers do on offense is dictated by how opponents defend Kobe Bryant, so it’s worth taking a look at how Bryant played in the three games against Denver this season: He averaged 22 points on 56.8 percent field-goal shooting and 7.7 assists. That means he shot less and more…
April 22, 2008, 8:45 PM ET from Lakers: Locker Talk by Kevin Ding
It’s not complacency, but it’s not just bad luck
Chris McCosky has a nice take down on the complacency argument, and finishes his post with this: Why do we always look to pin blame on intangibles? The Pistons are a great team, no question. We are looking at all-star players out there. But all-stars miss layups and free throws sometimes. It…
April 22, 2008, 8:30 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Where do the 2007-08 Pistons rank all-time?
The predictions and rankings below are from an email I received from Kyle Wright, author of the book The NBA from Top to Bottom, which undertakes the daunting task of ranking every single team in NBA history using a mathematical formula that has correctly predicted the champion 56% of the time. The…
April 22, 2008, 8:30 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Better defender: Kobe or Camby?
EL SEGUNDO — Kevin Garnett breezed to the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award, getting 90 of 124 possible first-place votes. Kobe Bryant, who quietly would’ve loved to get this honor but faced a very uphill battle, did not get a single first-place vote. The tally was announced…
April 22, 2008, 8:30 PM ET from Lakers: Locker Talk by Kevin Ding
Big-picture Bryant
Very noteworthy quotes from Kobe Bryant from Monday about the state of the Lakers … I wasn’t there, but the gist of them is clear: It’s easy to see him legitimately being a Laker for life again. On Mitch Kupchak: “I’d give him an A-plus. He goes from an F to an…
April 22, 2008, 8:30 PM ET from Lakers: Locker Talk by Kevin Ding
Flip Saunders: “The game should be fun”
From Ryan Pretzer on Pistons.com: And that’s why Wallace’s own coach, Flip Saunders, has a similar view of Wallace’s court behavior. “He’s caught some criticism from people from the last game, but I thought he had a great game,” Saunders said. “That’s his personality. The game…
April 22, 2008, 8:15 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Tracking Rasheed’s wisdom
Speaking of Rasheed Wallace quotes, you might want to bookmark this page on Google News, which tracks the most popular quotes by Rasheed that appear in news articles indexed by Google. (Hard to explain, easy to understand when you see it.) Consider it an always-updated version of DBB’s Sheed…
April 22, 2008, 8:15 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Rasheed is blogging (!?)
This ranks very high on the list of things I didn’t expect to see today: Rasheed Wallace has officially joined the blogosphere. Nothing interesting yet, but this is a potential gold mine of awesomeness. (via, of course, Need4Sheed)
April 22, 2008, 8:15 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Obama: Hillary couldn’t even make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference
I know Barack Obama loves his basketball, but I still cracked up to see his campaign using NBA analogies while cracking on Hillary Clinton: “Behind in delegates and sporting a 14-30 primary record (not good enough even to make the playoffs in the NBA Eastern Conference), the Clinton campaign…
April 22, 2008, 7:45 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
On arrogance
Continuing in a series of cameos by DBB readers, here’s Sauce1977 — MW By Sauce1977 Arrogance: an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions. Chauncey Billups, on whether or not the better team won in the Pistons-Cavs Eastern Conference…
April 22, 2008, 7:45 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Rip and Arnie are racing
Negativity seems to hanging over Pistons fans like a wet blanket, so here’s something to lighten the mood: trainer Arnie Kander and Rip Hamilton are apparently planning on racing this summer. Chris Silva first mentioned this over the weekend in the Detroit Free Press: Hamilton has challenged…
April 22, 2008, 7:30 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Woodson motivates the Hawks
Former Pistons assistant Mike Woodson is leaning on his ‘04 championship experience to get the Hawks up for their series against the Celtics.
April 22, 2008, 7:15 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Scott Perry’s homecoming
It’s official: Scott Perry is back as the new vice president of basketball operations.
April 22, 2008, 7:15 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Maxiell 9th in race for 6th
The NBA announced it’s Sixth Man of the Year award today: predictably, it’s Manu Ginobili, while Jason Maxiell finished ninth. Celebrate by buying a t-shirt for both.
April 22, 2008, 7:15 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Game Day Open Thread: Game 2 - Mavericks @ Hornets
The Hornets will try jump out to a 2-0 series lead when they host the Mavericks at the New Orleans Arena this evening. Dallas will be out for revenge after Chris Paul punked 'em with 35 points and 10 assists in his Playoff debut on Saturday, leading New Orleans to a 104-92 victory.Some info…
April 22, 2008, 7:15 PM ET from Hornets247.com Blog
Where “changing the rotation for no reason” happens
There’s no shortage of people screaming “complacency!” after last night’s game, both in the mainstream media and the comments of this blog. From ESPN’s Chris Broussard: I have no doubt that Detroit is good enough — on paper — to win the East. But for the…
April 22, 2008, 7:00 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
How important is playoff experience?
Just how important is playoff experience? I know as Pistons fans we like to think it gives our favorite team an edge over every other up-and-comer, but I’m not sure I buy it anymore. This isn’t a knee-jerk reaction to last night’s game — I actually made this idea the…
April 22, 2008, 7:00 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Bunches of playoff previews
I’ve yet to do any playoff previewing here at DBB, but I got warmed up with this little nugget over on Yahoo’s Ball Don’t Lie: So what can we expect now that the games actually matter? For starters, forget what you saw in the regular season. Yes, the Sixers managed to win two of…
April 22, 2008, 7:00 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
ROY, MIP and COY rankings
We Rite Goode has Rookie, Most Improved Player and Coach of the Year rankings, as voted on by basketball bloggers.
April 22, 2008, 6:45 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Pistons and Sixers kick off the playoffs
It’s weird — you wait all season for the playoffs to start, and when they finally get here, it seems like they snuck up on you. (Or is it just me?) I answered some questions about the series the other day for Brian at the aptly-named Philly blog Depressed Fan, and I should point out if…
April 22, 2008, 6:45 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
The Pistons are sell-outs
Not surprisingly, the Pistons led the NBA in attendance for the fourth time in five years as the Palace’s sell-out streak has reached 226 games and counting. If attendance were measured strictly by the turnstiles and not tickets sold, I’m curious if the Pistons would still be at the…
April 22, 2008, 6:45 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
It’s not complacency, but it’s not just bad luck
Chris McCosky has a nice take down on the complacency argument, and finishes his post with this: Why do we always look to pin blame on intangibles? The Pistons are a great team, no question. We are looking at all-star players out there. But all-stars miss layups and free throws sometimes. It…
April 22, 2008, 6:30 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Where do the 2007-08 Pistons rank all-time?
The predictions and rankings below are from an email I received from Kyle Wright, author of the book The NBA from Top to Bottom, which undertakes the daunting task of ranking every single team in NBA history using a mathematical formula that has correctly predicted the champion 56% of the time. The…
April 22, 2008, 6:30 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Dugout meets FD
The best discussion about the MVP race that I’ve seen yet.
April 22, 2008, 6:30 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Rasheed is blogging (!?)
This ranks very high on the list of things I didn’t expect to see today: Rasheed Wallace has officially joined the blogosphere. Nothing interesting yet, but this is a potential gold mine of awesomeness. (via, of course, Need4Sheed)
April 22, 2008, 6:15 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Talking mascots
Ziller’s We Will Win series on FanHouse has been cracking me up all week (and they’re even funnier when you read each one out loud in a funny accent). I was going to wait until he parodied Hooper before posting something, but I couldn’t wait after today’s posts with Screech…
April 22, 2008, 6:15 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
On arrogance
Continuing in a series of cameos by DBB readers, here’s Sauce1977. — MW ____ By Sauce1977 Arrogance: an attitude of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or in presumptuous claims or assumptions. Chauncey Billups, on whether or not the better team won in the Pistons-Cavs Eastern…
April 22, 2008, 5:45 PM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Thomas Told to Stay Away
According to Fox Sports, Isiah Thomas has been “barred from having any contact with the team.” As I said earlier, even if Thomas stayed on the payroll he would have no ability to undermine the current leadership. This story seems to validate that thought. If anyone from MSG is reading…
April 22, 2008, 5:30 PM ET from KnickerBlogger.Net
Mavericks-Hornets: Tuesday news wrap
It's game day, and with it comes a massive dose of news articles and blog posts. Some highlights...To start, here's an observation from Elias over a ESPN.com...Paul is the first player in league history to have at least 35 points and at least 10 assists in his first NBA playoff…
April 22, 2008, 4:00 PM ET from Hornets247.com Blog
OPEN THREAD: Day 4 of the 2k8 NBA Playoffs
Interesting little trifecta of games we have this evening. As the Round 1 madness continues, it would appear that most everything is going according to plan (seedwise). Let’s break down tonight’s events shall we? JUMP! And I thought I loved this…
April 22, 2008, 2:15 PM ET from Golden State Of Mind
Preparing for possible summer sales
When watching the playoff games, it's tough to completely think through a Bulls-eye lens as to who I'd rather see win or lose. When I'm watching it's mostly instinct, like giggling while Detroit loses. Or simply hoping that each series go as long as possible so there's just more playoff…
April 22, 2008, 02:45 AM ET from Blog a Bull
Pistons/Sixers first-round schedule
Game 1 in Detroit: Sunday (4/20), 6pm TNT Game 2 in Detroit: Wednesday (4/23), 7:30pm NBATV Game 3 @ Philly: Friday (4/25), 7pm ESPN2 Game 4 @ Philly: Sunday (4/27), 7pm, TNT Game 5 (if needed) in Detroit: Tuesday (4/29) TBD Game 6 (if needed) @Philly: Thursday (5/1) TBD Game 7 (if needed) in…
April 22, 2008, 00:15 AM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Welcome back, Scott Perry
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: PERRY TO DETROIT: Sonics assistant general manager Scott Perry has accepted an offer to be vice president of basketball operations for the Detroit Pistons, his former organization. Perry spent seven seasons with Detroit, one as a college scout. Perry replaces…
April 22, 2008, 00:00 AM ET from Detroit Bad Boys
Hornets-Mavericks Game 2: What to watch for
This past Saturday, the Hornets dominated the second half of their Playoff opener against the Dallas Mavericks and came away with a 104-92 victory. Game 2 goes down tomorrow at the New Orleans Arena. Here's what to watch for...1) The Mavericks' efforts to slow Chris PaulThe story of Game 1…
April 22, 2008, 00:00 AM ET from Hornets247.com Blog
Copyright © 2007 Michal Pelikán
|