Hoops week in Review

What an amazing week in basketball last week including the past couple of days. From the fight in Cincinnati, all the way to the Los Angeles Clippers becoming a factor in basketball what an interesting past few days. Let's review the good and the bad this past week you decide which is which:

• Xavier-Cincinnati Fight: This was much bigger than the game and unfortunately the personal beef between certain players escalated on the court with nine seconds left in the game. Supposedly something was said on Twitter which upset-ted several Xavier players.Therefore they decided to go street. Sad sad moment in sports you can't let what bothers you on the inside escalate on the court. Since these are still kids, hopefully they'll learn from this unfortunate teachable moment. Grow up to become honorable men not goons from the street. Both teams are pretty good this year.

• Kentucky-Indiana: This was the game Tom Cream needed to get his program in the right direction. A moral victory was not acceptable. This was the victory his program needed. The up-n-coming Hoosiers defeated the lottery bound Wildcats with a buzzer beater which was AMAZING!!!! Potential #1 pick Anthony Davis remained in foul trouble (he has a lot to learn) but Marquis Teague showed glimpse of promise as he dominated the game in the later part of the second half. Great game for the Hoosiers but the Cats are still Final 4 bound.

• David Stern denies Lakers Chris Paul: Last Friday the Lakers were gearing up for CP3 & Dwight Howard and even pulled the trade for CP3 for Pau Gasol but nooooooooo!!!!! David Stern refused to let the rich get richer which was wrong, and don't be surprised if Kobe Bryant doesn't request a trade after losing Lamar Odom for nothing along with Shannon Brown signing with Phoenix. 

• Meanwhile Chris Paul to the Clippers: Even though the "other" team in LA landed the future Hall-of-Fame point guard from New Orleans, this truly upset Black Mamba and the rest of the NBA Players. What David Stern did was unbelievable and nobody has a valid reason for him blocking the trade. Blake Griffin was as happy as a new kid in Toys R Us. The Clippers also landed Chauncey Billups, Caron Butler, and resigned DeAndre Jordan. The key to all this was making sure Blake stays for the future. The Clippers might be better than the Lakers this year WOW!!!!!

• Syracuse the new #1: Everything that's going on with the Orangemen nobody is talking about the 'Cuse being the nation's top team. I haven't watched the 'Cuse yet but we'll see how long their reign as the nations top team last. 

• Simeon is the nation's top prep team: The house the produced Derrick Rose, Nick Anderson, and most importantly Benji Wilson is still the #1 team in the land and has the top rated junior in the country JaBari Parker who has NBA written all over him. 

Basketball is Back!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome back NBA!!!!!!! Christmas time is coming and so is the NBA. The opening game of the 66 game NBA season is between the Chicago Bulls lead by the reigning MVP Derrick Rose facing The Los Angeles Lakers with Kobe Bryant and new coach Mike Brown. The NBA Finals rematch between the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks where they receive their rings also take place. Overall there are six games on Christmas which have all the marquee stars playing on opening night. Dwight Howard, Kevin Durant, Blake Griffin, and Stephen Curry also highlight the Christmas night. The NBA was smart to have their young stars open the season trying to capture the fans that strayed away during the lockout. Building back the fans trust is key. Let's hope when this new bargaining agreement expires the owners and players are at peace to avoid another lockout. 

In college hoops over the weekend the two team that I project will meet in April to cut down the nets played in Lexington, KY as Kentucky defeated North Carolina by a last second block from 2012 #1 pick Anthony Davis.  Watching that game featured at least five future 1st round NBA picks. Harrison Barnes, Anthony Davis, Marquis Teague, Kidd-Gilchrist are lottery picks and Kendall Marshall is late lottery mid-round one pick. 

NBA free agency begins this week and training camp next week looking forward to all the signings. Also My ILLINI are 8-0 and ranked in the top 25 this week. 

Florida and Texas...Best NBA Teams?

Tonight in America Airlines arena the top two NBA Teams in the Western Conference squared off in TNT as the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Dallas Mavericks. Not only are these two teams the best in the West but they make a strong case for who is the best pro team in Texas? Further east in the state of Florida the new look Orlando Magic led by Dwight Howard claim they're the best team in the NBA but the triple three in Miami claim that the Heat are not only the best team in Florida but also the NBA.

All four teams make strong cases for best team in the NBA but for now lest decide who's the best team in Florida and Texas:

Heat vs. Magic: With the addition of Jason Richardson and Gilbert Arenas, the Magic added additional scoring for Dwight Howard. Most Improved candidate JJ Reddick is improving every game and even regained his long range shooting. The biggest advantage for the Magic is Jamer Nelson. Miami has been unable to contain calaber point guards all year and Nelson and drive and dish all day. For the Miami Heat, it starts and ends with The Big 3. James, Wade, and Bosh can score any given night but the with the return of Mike Miller, he must provide the long rage shot when the triple threat are in trouble. Without a quality point guard I give the edge to the Orlando Magic.

The Texas Showdown: Tonight we saw the San Antonio Spurs victorious and I believe they're still the best team in Texas for reasons why. The Spurs are the smartest team in the NBA. The veteran team that's won 4 titles since 1999 has the same formula working since they won their first title. This team breathes defense and never takes any bad shots. Tony Parker is still one of the quickest point guards in the league and Manu Ginobili provides the additional scoring for Tim Duncan. Richard Jefferson has secured his role which is attacking the basket and having DeJuan Blair is a huge plus. Dallas is getting older and still does not practice defense. Jason Kidd can no longer guard the speedy guard and Dirk is still soft on the defensive end. Kidd's guard play, Dirk's scoring, Marion doing everything, and Tyson Chandler rebounding & blocking shots is still not enough for Mark Cuban's crew to win Texas.

USA Basketball Recap

With Kevin Durant's game winning block against Spain a few night ago, Team USA remained undefeated in International play. Team USA is in the pursuit for their first gold medal since 1994. Chicago's own Derrick Rose dominated down the stretch hitting clutch free throws and finishing strong with the left hand (and one).

Ricky Rubio impressed me the most as he showed why the Minnesota drafted him fifth in the 2009 NBA Draft Draft. Rubio reminds me of a taller version of Steve Nash minus the 3-point range. Spain and USA have become quite a rivalry the past five years and I can pretty much say these two teams will meet in the World Basketball Finals.

Without Howard, Boozer, Bosh, Team USA has to rely on Tyson Chandler, Brook Lopez, and Kevin Love as their big man. This current group is more athletic than the Redeem Team but not as talented. Kevin Durant is the new leader of this group according to the coaching staff and the media but Big Shot Chauncey Billups is the one these young ball players need to listen to.

Way too many slashers in this group and not enough big men and shooters. Therefore when the next cuts take place, Coach K should say goodbye to Russel Westbrook, Ruddy Gay, and Danny Grainger. Reasons being Curry, Gordan, Billups are the shooters. Rose, Rondo play the lead guard. Odom, Wallace, and Iggie are the athletic do everything forwards.

The group is good enough to win the gold along with the 2012 Olympics but they better not take Spain for granted.

Wizards Win Lottery - Conference Finals Recap

Congratulations to the Washington Wizards for winning the 2011 NBA Draft Lottery tonight in New Jersey. This team's 2009-2010 season was not a good one by dealing with the death of longtime owner Abe Polen, trading the core of their team (Antwan Jamison, Caron Butler, Brendon Hayword, and Deshawn Stevenson), followed by the season long suspensions of Javaris Crittenton for gun play. The upside for this franchise is that this team is young and now have the opportunity to draft John Wall or Evan Turner. The main question is with this young team do they draft Wall then trade Agent Zero who has a monster contract that no owner wants to touch. My theory is that the Wizards buy him out then let Arenas pursue other interest with another ball club then start fresh with John Wall as their point guard for the future. Wizard's assistant coach Sam Cassell will make sure John Wall learn the lead guard position from an NBA champion guard.

Game 1 of the NBA conference finals are complete as the Lakers and Celtics were both victorious. The Phoenix Sun could not find an answer for Kobe Bryant who dropped 40 who also made Grant Hill fall off this crossover. I'm not upset that he missed the floater but he still should have converted. The almost highlight of the game was Shannon Brown almost dunking over Michigan State alum Jason Richardson but took off too early. I was also very impressed with Derick Fisher's defense on Steve Nash after getting abused by Russell Westbrook and Deron Williams in the previous series. Game two is tomorrow at the Staples Center.

Boston Celtics took a 2 game to zero lead over the Orlando Magic tonight down in South Florida. At one point the Magic had a one-point lead but KG hit a key fade away shot over Dwight Howard (good defense...better offense). After a smart foul on Vince Carter by Paul Pierce which was his sixth, Vince had the opportunity to but his club up one with less than a minuet but the former Tar Heel had a Nick Anderson moment and missed both free throws. At the end, Orlando had to go the length of the court but Jameer Nelson missed a half-court 3 to send the game to overtime.

Both series are over and I'm already prepared for a Celtics-Lakers Finals.