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Houston Rockets – Jeremy Lin Can Be Just Like James Harden
The Houston Rockets don’t beat the Portland Trail Blazers without Jeremy Lin making the most of his time off the bench, seemingly understanding that the only way for him to get minutes is to play like James Harden, which means becoming a score-first kind of player, and let someone else worry about trying to make others look better.
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Indiana Pacers – Almost Time to Hit the Panic Button
The only reason the Indiana Pacers are still in the lead of the Eastern Conference happens to be their rivals from Southeast suffering from a similar slump. But after losing to the Dallas Mavericks in what is now their fourth consecutive loss, it’s easy to agree on this being more than just a late season slump.
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Bulls Over Heat – Energy Makes All The Difference
The Miami Heat, in a series, should do away with the Chicago Bulls, just like they have in recent years. But in regular season games, especially in the United Center, quality makes less of a difference and the slump the NBA champions and their MVP LeBron James are in continues after an overtime loss.
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Wichita State Shockers – The Number One Team Nobody Believes In
As impressive as the Wichita State undefeated season and MVC double title are, it’s just hard to feel 100% confident about their seeding as a number one team, even after the Final Four from last season, simply based on the fact that they faced mediocre opposition at best throughout this whole season.
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New York Knicks & Phil Jackson – Not a Match Made in Heaven
While the New York Knicks are once again planting (false?) hope among their fans with a streak of wins that might help them somehow get into the playoffs, the hottest topic in the big apple seems to be the possibility of Phil Jackson becoming the head of basketball operations on the team next season, with the option of coaching the team also in the air.
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Los Angeles Clippers – Wish They Could Play the Lakers Every Day
There are plenty of weaker teams than the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA, but no one actually gets this team motivated quite like the Lakers, helping them set a few records along the way. Two days later, facing the sliding Atlanta Hawks proved to be a lot more difficult, and if it wasn’t for Jeff Teague’s incompetency from the line, it could have ended very differently than a 109-108 win.
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San Antonio Spurs – Best Basketball in the NBA Right Now
Winning six consecutive games, getting everyone back from injury and not letting a huge win over the defending NBA champoints go to their heads, following it up with a 121-112 victory against the Orlando Magic as Tony Parker & Manu Ginobili bring out their best, as the San Antonio Spurs make it a three way-tie for the best record in the NBA.
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New York Knicks – The Playoffs Continue to Get Closer
We mentioned another misleading streak beginning yesterday. It seems it’s not over yet, as the New York Knicks came away with a 107-97 win over a direct rival for the final postseason spot, the Cleveland Cavaliers, after another impressive scoring performance by Carmelo Anthony and generally the offense-oriented lineup doing its job.
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Florida Over Kentucky – The Difference Good Coaching Makes
Home & away, Florida are simply too good of a team for Kentucky to handle. Too smart on the floor, with a better head coach on the sidelines. The face of one-and-done basketball, John Calipari, had his usual bag of excuses in the end, but that doesn’t offer the right kind of explanation of why his preseason number one team has looked so bad this season, beginning to look like recurring theme.
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Duke Over North Carolina – Overrated, But Still Pretty Good
Even if Duke get a bit too much love in the polls and don’t deserve to be a number one seed in the NCAA tournament when that decision is made, they’re still a pretty good team with two outstanding players in Jabari Parker and Rodney Hood, leading them to an impressive regular season ending win over North Carolina.