Thread: NBA 2008-09 Season

Just heard during the Celtics/Magic game that Memphis had fired head coach Marc Iavaroni.

IMO, the Grizzlies are one of the worst franchises in the NBA, if not all of sports.

For all I hear about the Lions and Islanders, the Griz are just as bad.

I'm going to make a bold prediction- within 3 years, O.J. Mayo will want out of there.

Originally Posted by SabresRule

Just heard during the Celtics/Magic game that Memphis had fired head coach Marc Iavaroni.

IMO, the Grizzlies are one of the worst franchises in the NBA, if not all of sports.

For all I hear about the Lions and Islanders, the Griz are just as bad.

I'm going to make a bold prediction- within 3 years, O.J. Mayo will want out of there.

It's a shame too, because before he retired, Hubie Brown had that organization going in the right direction.

Celtics won, but here's what surprises me:

they hit ZERO three-pointers!

Nice win for the Celtics tonight.

The C's won impressively on consecutive nights in Miami and Orlando, and have now won seven in a row.

The race for the top seed in the East is a dog fight once again:

Boston 36-9
Cleveland 32-8
Orlando 33-9

Originally Posted by SabresRule

Celtics won, but here's what surprises me:

they hit ZERO three-pointers!

And that's one night after hitting 15 treys (in 25 attempts) in Miami.............including Eddie House hitting 7 threes.

Originally Posted by CeltsHD

And that's one night after hitting 15 treys (in 25 attempts) in Miami.............including Eddie House hitting 7 threes.

Eddie WAS the difference in the Miami game. The perimeter defense was terrible. ALOT of those shots were WIDE open with NO ONE in either Eddie's or Ray's face. To their credit, they made the shots. I was at the game and Eddie kept saying, "you keep leaving me open, I will kill you guys".....and he was ABSOLUTELY right!!

1. Most NBA Teams are approaching their 41st game which marks the halfway point in the season. Who would've thought so many teams would be off to such a fast start? The Cavs and Lakers have only 8 losses each and the Celtics and Magic have 9 losses each. Last year, the Celtics finished with a the least amount of losses in 16. This season, there are 4 teams that can legitimately challenge that!

2. Impressive road win for the Celtics last night against the Magic. The Celtics have now won 7 in a row. Maybe their last loss against the Cavs served as a wake-up call?

3. It's been discussed frequently about how important home court advantage is in the playoffs. Here's some food for thought: The #1 seed get's to play the #8 seed in the first round. After that, they play the winner of the #4 vs. #5 game. The #3 seed gets the #6 seed and plays the winner of the #2 vs. #7 seed in the second round. This means the #2 and #3 seeds will most likely face each other in the second round and one of them will be eliminated. Don't think for a second that home court won't be a major advantage in deciding that round either. Of course the Big 3 in the East can avoid that nail-biting second round matchup by earning the #1 overall seed. Damn, this is going to be a fun second half of the season!

4. A new era has dawned on DEEEEtroit Basketball. Richard Hamilton is no longer in the starting lineup. Pistons coach Michael Curry announced Tuesday that he will begin using guard Rip Hamilton off the bench, with guard Allen Iverson and forward Amir Johnson starting.

5. This just in: The Lakers are even better than they were last year. If the the East thinks that the real Championship will be the Eastern Conference Finals, they got another thing coming. Pau Gasol has had a full year to develop chemistry with his new team and Andrew Bynum is healthy. Speaking of which, did anyone see Bynum's 42 point, 15 rebound, 3 block game the other night?! Introducing Andrew freaking Bynum everybody!

6. Alonzo Mourning called it a career. Mourning was a soldier on the court and had a heart of gold off of it. The Miami Herald has more:
Miami Heat's Alonzo Mourning retires after 16 years -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

7. With Alonzo Mourning retiring, Miami Heat president Pat Riley will have to look for help at center elsewhere. In Toronto, perhaps? Rumors are swirling about trading power forward Shawn Marion to the Raptors for center Jermaine O'Neal. To that Marion says:

I’m actually tired of it,” he said tersely after practice. “I’m really tired of it. It’s very distracting. I’m trying to focus on what I’m trying to do here and I keep getting bombarded with all this other stuff.”

8. Grizzlies fire Coach Iavaroni after 11-30 start. This is the 7th coach fired this season so far in the NBA. Poor, poor O.J. Mayo. What did he ever do to deserve to be stuck in the doldrums that is Memphis NBA basketball?

9. Record number of votes were collected for the '08-'09 NBA All Star selections. Dwight Howard was the overall leading vote-getter, tallying more than three million votes. LeBron finished second at just over 2.9 million, and Kobe (2.8M), D-Wade (2.7M) and Duncan (2.5M) rounded out the top five. All of them topped the previous all-time high number of votes, a record previously held by Yao from the 2005 season.

To those who say the NBA is in trouble, I simply laugh in amusement. I really think with the current batch of phenomenal talent, the league is experiencing a new dawning of a very special NBA era.

10. The Utah Jazz have a new theme song called "Scream Utah". The guy who created it won the contest by the Jazz and was awarded $5,000. Here it is....
http://dimemag.com/2009/01/scream-utah/

Originally Posted by salsadancer7

Yeah, but Detroit didn't lose OVER 65 games last year.

Well the Lions may lose that many before they win again....

There's only a single game on ESPN tonight...............but it's a good one:


7:00et- Dallas at Detroit