Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year. Not only did I spend time with my family and exchange presents with loved ones but I sat in front of my parents big screen television from 12pm to almost 1 something at night watching non stop NBA. Its what I would do ideally every day but certain things like school, work and television scheduling get in the way of that . Anyways as happy as I was to watch NBA basketball all day, this time the games were a little different, here’s my review of the NBA Christmas.
Garbage Basketball in New York:
It was expected that the Knicks would lose on Christmas. They were squaring off against the Oklahoma City Thunder and their best player Carmelo Anthony didn’t suit up. We all knew we were about to watch JR Smith throw up a bunch of shots, and watch the Thunder completely dominate. The Knicks get a pass because it was pretty much known they were losing that game ( I even got yelled at for wanting to watch it). I mean Russell Westbrook got a triple double and there was literally nothing they could of done to prevent it. Now the Nets on the other hand, get no pass. These dudes got blown out by a team that’s been just as bad as them on their home floor on Christmas Morning. The Nets put up a little fight at the begging but then just lost it in the 3rd quarter and got done in by a Derrick Roe-Luol Deng- less Chicago Bulls. There isn’t even one player on the Bulls that I would say individually was unstoppable, the Bulls just played together, which Brooklyn didn’t. I would pretty disappointed with the two New York teams playing first because we saw two non competitive games early in the day.
The Miami Heat Like to Entertain:
Unlike the big bad mean OKC Thunder, the Miami Heat sometimes let opposing teams think they have a chance. That’s exactly what the Heat did with the Lakers, they turned a Christmas that seemed as though it would be filled with blow outs into something fun. The Heat played with the Lakers and the Lakers almost made them pay. The highlight off the day came in the 3rd quarter when my boy Nick “Swaggy P” Young went head to head with LeBron James and held his own. As a Swaggy P fan all I could do was smile. In the end the Heat won the game as they should. They kept it close, and even had some highlight alley oops, a perfect game to watch with the family, and the Lakers didn’t look completely garbage without Kobe Bryant, a plus for the NBA as a whole.
The Rockets Have Some Weapons:
The Houston Rockets looked like a contender last night. The beat the San Antonio Spurs which is a really hard thing to do, they make players that are just good be great and players that are garbage be ok. You would think that this would be a battle to the finish but it wasn’t. The Rockets took turns on who was going to beat up on the Spurs. At first it was Chandler Parsons, who got bucket after bucket on the Spurs. Meanwhile Terrence Jones was get bucket and boards finishing with a nasty double double. That Howard cat did his thing as well not even taking a lot of shots but got a double double himself and got 20 boards. Then when the Spurs started to come back, James Harden decided to wake up and get buckets. The Rockets look like they got things figured out now, which should be scary for the rest of the West. We all know how good the Spurs usually are and they haven’t dissapointed this year so this isn’t a knock on San Antonio, this is saying watch out for Houston, these guys are legit.
The Clippers and Warriors Don’t Like Each Other:
It took 4 games but finally we got an intense game at the end of the night. The Warriors and Clippers game was bound to be a tight one as these are two teams who are on the rise at the same time and are yearning for respect. They play in the same division and even before they were good teams , still had fierce battles. Last night was no different as the two teams battled to the very end, which resulted in a Blake Griffin ejection (he really didn’t do anything but for whatever reason players who get hit get a tec as well). the game went down to the wire and featured a lot of pushing and shoving as the Warriors pulled out a close win. It looks like we have a new must see rivalry in the NBA.
Lack of Star Power:
Lets be real here, the NBA is a star driven team. Usually we see the stars play all day on Christmas but this time we didn’t. The Bulls didn’t have Derrick Rose and the nobody on the Nets should be called a star. The Knicks didn’t have Carmelo Anthony and the Lakers didn’t have Kobe Bryant. The lack of stars probably turnt a lot of people off and I don’t blame you. Maybe next year the league will have the Pacers play, I bet they’ll have a few people hype.
Everick Davis Jr.
Was good though, it's me Everick Davis Jr. Born and raised in Portsmouth Virginia, I'm currently a senior at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. I watch every sport (not so much golf) but I am huge on the NBA. My favorite players right now are J.R. Smith, Russell Westbrook & Nick Young. Drinking beer and watching sports is my favorite past time and I do it year round! I used to play basketball on the regular until everyone else kept growing and I still stood at 5'6. So that's when I channeled my efforts into becoming the next Stephen A Smith or anything close to that. I currently write for "The Carolinian" newspaper in Greensboro, NC and intern for http://theurbantwist.com/ Random Fact about me, I love anime, my favorite one is One Piece! Second random fact, I got beatz! check me out http://www.reverbnation.com/ielabs
