Welcome to the first installment of Roundball in about a year. This was a segment created in this blog during the 10-11 NBA season to catch up on the events of the previous day. With the recent resuscitation of this blog complete, I figured it would be a good time to get this section going again. Now that college is wrapping up, I am watching a ton of NBA again.In both Conferences, it is going to be a race to the finish during this final month strech run. With a little under a month to go, there are still 22 teams fighting for the 16 playoff spots. The Cavaliers and Trailblazers will both probably continue to fade, but they still have outside chances.
In the Eastern Conference from the Bulls to the Bucks, you have nine teams fighting for playoff positioning. While the seeds are far from a lock in this conference, you at least have a more clear picture of where some teams are headed with the playoffs looming. The Bulls and Heat will more than likely continue to duke it out for first place and a potential home court advantage throughout the entire playoffs. Unless they have a big collapse in the final month, look for the Magic to finish third. After that, the seeds could move one or two depending on what happens in the final weeks. The Celtics and 76ers will fight it out for the Atlantic Division with the winner finishing fourth and the other team finishing as low as 7th or 8th. This division championship is huge because the winner will face either the Hawks or the Pacers, while the loser will face a motivated Heat or Bulls team. Look for the Celtics to get their act together and win the Atlantic. It is always interesting when the Hawks and Celtics face each other in the playoffs.. The 76ers meanwhile, will continue to fade and might even finish eighth. It will be a toss up between the Pacers and Hawks for 5th and 6th, but I think the Hawks will continue to play well down the stretch and finish 5th. It would not suprise me all that much if the Hawks even can get themselves into the top four with the way they have played recently. There is still the outside potential of Al Horford returning for the playoffs, especially if the Hawks get into the second round. This would be huge in the playoffs, when the tempo is slowed down. I expect the 76ers and Knicks to fight it out for 7th and 8th, with the Bucks fading slowly over the final weeks. That team could be good in a year or two, though. The Knicks playoff hopes are relying pretty heavily on what happens with Amare Stoudemire obviously. The news yesterday did not appear to be good and he is headed to Miami for a second opinion. The Bucks do have a pretty easy schedule down the stretch in comparison to New York's too.
Out West, things aren't nearly as clear. Granted, The Thunder, Spurs, and Lakers appear to be more than likely headed into the playoffs with the top three seeds in the West. You never know, but I can't really see any of the 4-12 seeds creeping up into the top three. Maybe the Clippers, but probably not. The 4-12 teams have their own issues as it stands, with 5 games separating the nine teams. As I stated above, I think the Blazers will continue to fade. I think the Timberwolves will miss Ricky Rubio during these final weeks. Like the Bucks in the East, that team is going to be exciting for years if they keep their roster pretty similar. As a Rockets fan, I would more rather see them miss the playoffs so they can get three First Round draft picks. They might be missing key players still when the playoffs start anyway. Their recent run has been great though, especially with Lowry and Martin out. The teams that currently sit 4-9 in the west have 1.5 games separating them, so it's really anyone's guess as to what will happen in the final weeks. As of this writing 4-9 in order is Clippers, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Jazz, Rockets, and Nuggets. The Suns are right there as well though. They have been playing as well as anyone in the West since the all star break. Steve Nash is the Jamie Moyer of the NBA. This playoff race will be fun to watch. I will speculate on it more as things become a little more concrete.
Onto last nights action....
The Orlando Magic went into Toronto and even a sneaky camouflage uniform couldn't stifle them. They rode a hot shooting night from Ryan Anderson in an easy victory 117-101. The Magic got off to a fast start before the Raptors closed the first quarter out on a run of their own. After that, it was pretty much all Ryan Anderson and Orlando. Anderson finished with 28 points and a season high 8 threes. He has been the lone bright spot on my fantasy team this year....Who would think that a matchup between two of the Eastern Conference bottom feeders would provide for one of the two most exciting games? Such was the case when the Pistons faced the Wizards last night. Granted, the Wizards have been improved since they cut a lot of their dead weight. This was also Rodney Stuckey's first game back for Detroit after missing the previous three games with a toe injury. He was the difference maker in this game, as he scored 24 points including the game winning basket. While the Wizards have been improved, it also needs to be noted that this was the third consecutive game they have lost after leading by double digits..... 
Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo got busy as the Celtics went into Charlotte and held off the Bobcats in the second half. Pierce finished with a season high 36 points as the Celtics won this game by seven. The Bobcats continue to lose. At least they have Gerald Henderson and Kemba Walker...One night after losing to the Thunder, you would think that the Heat would come out strong and continue their dominance over the Pacers last night.....The Pacers had ideas of their own last night as they used a key third quarter run in handing the Heat their second consecutive defeat. Danny Granger finally decided to show up for a Heat game, leading the Pacers with 25 points. The Heat have now lost their last two games by a combined 31 points....One night after losing a heartbreaker in 4OT, the Jazz went up to New Jersey to face the Nets. While the Jazz looked tired, they were able to use a combination of defense and a poor shooting effort from the Nets while running away with this game by 21 points. The Nets did close the gap to 5 at the end of the third quarter, but the Jazz went on a run down the stretch and the Nets had no answer as usual. The Jazz look to be in decent shape for the playoffs with their recent play. The Nets might be in complete disarray again depending on what happens with Deron Williams at the end of the season.....The Knicks got word yesterday that they would be without Amare Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin for this game. With a potential half game separating them if they came in and won, you would think Milwaukee would have been chomping at the bit to win this game. The Bucks were horrible last night and unable to take care of the situation, as the Knicks closed out down the stretch and won 89-80. This game looked like a pickup game from start to finish, as neither team really had any flow going. Both teams ended up shooting 36% (NYK) and 35% (MIL) for the night. One of the uglier games I have watched all season for sure......
The Bulls have been without Derrick Rose for some time now. He has missed 16 games this season with a myriad of injuries, including the last seven. Clearly the Bulls missed him last night, as the Nuggets guards outplayed Chicago from start to finish. Ty Lawson, Aaron Afflalo, and Andre Miller combined for 61 of Denver's 108 points last night. They also combined for 16 assists. That was the difference, as Chicago lost this game by 17 points. Chicago fans must be hoping Derrick Rose will be ready in a few weeks.....The Houston Rockets continue to play well without their two starting guards. They once again did not miss Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin as Houston came back and won this game in overtime. The Kings got to a big lead early and were able to close out the first quarter with a 12 point lead. The Rockets continued to chip away from there and then took over in the overtime and won the game by a final of 113-106. There was some bad news with the good of course, as Goran Dragic went out in overtime with an apparent ankle injury. Good thing they signed Earl Boykins yesterday!.....I have been watching a lot of basketball in my 30 years on this planet, but I don't know how many times I have seen an NBA player miss a dunk because he jumped too high! Last night, Blake Griffin did just that. Who else, right? It was a late game here, so I fell asleep before halftime, but the Clippers got their revenge on the Hornets from last Thursday's defeat. They started off on a big run, it was even 18-2 at one point. The Hornets were actually competitive after that, but the Clippers came away with a 12 point victory. Vinny Del Negro's job remains safe, for now.....
30.8/13.9- Kevin Loves scoring and rebounding average for March. Like me, you may have a reason or even two reasons to dislike Kevin Love. Note the loud, annoying, and obnoxious UCLA fans in the second video. Around the time they starting yelling Final Four, I smashed my cell phone.
2- The number of games the Lakers have lost by double digits this year. I realize there is still close to 20 games left, but I haven't seen any other teams with fewer than four double digit losses. Could just be a coincidence...
143- Ryan Anderson's three point total for the season to date. In a full regular season, at his current pace, he would have a shot at 250 threes. Still, Anderson does still have an outside chance at becoming just the 22nd player in NBA history to hit 200 3 pointers in a season. Not bad, considering there are only 66 games this season...
42- New Jersey's field goal percentage at home. The Bobcats are the only team with a worse shooting percentage at home, 41.3. These two teams are terrible.
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