Every morning, we’ll give you five things from the night before in the NBA to start your day.
1: DERONSANITY!!! No, that’s no good. DERONCREDIBLE!!! Ugh… no. DERON… ummmm oh Deron Williams was awesome last night.
Lin is a much easier name for puns.
Since this was under such a spotlight, let’s just cut to the chase about what really happened last night and what this really means in New York:
- Deron Williams is better than Jeremy Lin
- Carmelo Anthony is rusty and needs time to get acclimated to this new situation
As far as #1 goes, that’s no big deal. DWill is better than a lot of people. Does it bring Lin down a peg? Only as far as manufactured hype goes. What he has done is no less amazing. We’ve yet to see where he settles as far as overall ability, but he’s got skills, and one bad game against one of the best in the business won’t change that.
As for Melo… he was rusty, but he was trying to play within the offense. I know we live in a society of snap-judgements, but the Knicks are going to need a few games to get a handle on all of this. Patience is the most important thing in New York at the moment.
2: Greg Oden is the most snake-bitten athlete ever
Only Greg Oden can go in for minor surgery to clear out some debris from his knee and have the doctor call an audible and perform the most complex knee surgery short of actually replacing the joint itself. He has now had TWO microfracture surgeries on the left knee, and one on the right. It’s impossible not to feel horrible for the guy.
The question isn’t even whether he’ll be able to play basketball again. I’m more concerned with the guy being able to walk normally again and his ability to live a healthy life without limping everywhere.
I really hope this kid’s body lets up on him. Right now, it’s flat out refusing to play basketball anymore. And as much as I would love to see a triumphant return to the floor for Oden, I’m not sure I could stomach him writhing on the floor in pain when one of his knees quits on him again. It’s just too much.
3: HIGHLIGHTS!!!
DWill for 3… DWill for 3… DWill for 3… DWill for 3…
Rubio goes coast to coast and beats the buzzer
Kevin Martin’s first miss was so horrible, it took a bounce that only he could get… and of course he beats the buzzer with the follow up shot
4: Line of the Night: Deron Williams – 38 points (10-22 fg, 8-14 3pt), 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 6 fouls
The last number is the best. Think DWill was amped? Think he was a little over-excited for this game? Let’s use his quote now instead of waiting for the next segment:
”I don’t really watch too many games, but I do see Twitter, people tweet me and every, you know, three lines it was `Jeremy Lin destroyed Deron Williams,”’ Williams said. ”So I definitely took offense to that in the first game and definitely, like I said, I had it circled.”
DWill took it personally that this whole Jeremy Lin thing began against the Nets, so he did something about it. Is this how it’s going to be every time Lin plays Williams? And can Lin come back and possibly out-play DWill?
Wiliams wanted to shut the Linsanity up last night… but he only added another story line to the whole thing. And that’s not a bad thing, especially if Lin and Williams stay with their teams for a while. A Manhattan vs. Brooklyn rivalry with two point guards who have it out for each other just makes the whole thing juicer.
5: You can quote me on that
“Once I get my game back, I can attack off the dribble, post, do all those things I think there’s not a lot of power forwards in this league who are better than me.”
– Dirk Nowitzki, on getting healthier
“It’s killing him. He just came back, played in a couple of games and was beginning to get in shape, get a rhythm, and then he goes down again. He’s pretty depressed about it. Hopefully the team can be over it and realize he and Tiago are going to be gone for a while.”
– Greg Popovich, on Manu Ginobili getting hurt again
“I don’t plan on going to talk to [Bryant], and I have not gone and talked to him … I just coach the team. There’s nothing more for me to do. I think that discussion is done between Mitch and Kobe. …
“It’s not for me to touch. You know what, if I was a coach or GM, yes, it would be for me to touch. But this is not for me to touch.”
– Mike Brown, on Kobe Bryant’s comments about players’ potentially being traded.
