There may be 10 guys on the NBA court, but sometimes it is man v. man. Wade & Arenas did battle on Wednesday night with Wade’s 40 trumping Arenas’ 32.
If there was any question as to whether Arenas has his game back, it was answered with a definite YES on Wednesday night. Arenas did battle with Dwyane Wade and their showdown was must-see-tv. But it was Dwyane Wade, who had an MVP-level season last year, who came out on top.
Wade outdueled Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, who scored 32, in a game that was deadlocked down the stretch until the final minute. With the game tied at 89 and a minute left, Wade made plays when he needed to and Arenas couldn’t answer. Source: Yahoo! Sports
Expect more great match-ups like this as the NBA season wears on. If Washington is going to make any noise in the NBA, they need Agent Zero at his absolute best. Though the supporting cast of Butler, Miller, & Haywood are chipping in admirably, it is up to Gilbert to keep the ship afloat until Jamison returns.
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Any idea who is leading the NBA in made 3 pointers? Raise your hand if you’ve never heard of Danilo Gallinari…because he is the next pure shooter in the NBA.
Though it is dangerous to extrapolate small numbers into large numbers, it is impossible to ignore what is happening at Madison Square Garden. There in the bright lights of New York City, a 21-year old, 6 foot 10 inch Italian is putting on a show like we haven’t seen in some time. The 6th pick in the 2008 draft by the Knicks, Danilo Gallinari did very little his rookie season.
With Mike D’Antoni firmly in control, and with an extra year under his belt, Danilo has been unchained and he is firing away from 3 point land. In three games he has 18 3 pointer. Not attempts, but 18 made 3 pointers…and shooting at a better than 50% clip from downtown. Some guys might have suspected that this kid could play, but no one could have foreseen the volume and efficiency with which the Italian Assassin could stroke the ball.
No doubt the second year player will find it hard to keep up such a pace, but given the volume of shots available in the Knick offense, and his recent insertion into the starting lineup, this could be a sign of things to come. Even the return of little Nate won’t take the ball out of his hands.
Most basketball players are either long gone from the NBA or buried deep on someone’s bench at 35 years of age. But Steve Nash is showing that his skills are far from gone.
Steve Nash took his time opening night, scoring 15 points of his 24 points in the final quarter leading the Phoenix Suns to an opening night win of the Golden State Warriors. He followed this up with an eye-popping 20 assists in a romp over the Golden Warriors. Is Nash’s performance a mirage in the desert? Is it simply what good point guards do against two lowly Western Conference opponents? Or is this a wake-up call to the rest of the NBA that Nash & the Suns are back?
The Terry Porter experiment was a disaster. The Shaq trade did nothing but relegate the Suns to an also-ran team. Steve Kerr has two strikes. One more and he is out! Returning to the “7 Seconds or Less” philosophy that propelled the Suns to one of the elite teams in the NBA seems to have also woken up Nash.
Amare Stoudemire is back and Jason Richardson returns from suspension soon. Channing Frye mans the post last held by Shaq. Though certainly a downgrade on defense and low-post offense, Channing allows this team to run at max speed. The Brazilian Blur, Leandro Barbosa, is poised to wipe away last year’s disappointing season and return to his fast break ways.
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Is Agent Zero back? This first game of the 2009-10 season would suggest that we may be seeing a renewed, rejuvenated, All-Star level Gilbert Arenas.
Gilbert Arenas scored 29 points in the Washington Wizard’s debut game of the new NBA season. But more importantly, he led one of the worst teams in the league last year (19-63) to a victory over the restocked Dallas Mavericks. Beating a Western Division contender may just be the start for these Wizards.
Scoring has always come easily to Gil. Maybe that’s because he shoots as much as anyone in the league. But digging into the stats, Gil is at his best, and so are the Wizards, when he is dishing the ball. His 9 assists against the Mavs shows that he might be putting the team goals in front of his own. No longer playing for a contract — he’s already got a massive $100m plus deal — Gilbert knows that it is time to win.
Desperate to get to the winning ways of 3 seasons ago, when the ritual was to get ousted in the playoffs every year by LeBron, the Wizards made a slew of off-season moves. An injury to top forward, Antawn Jamison, will slow their progress but it could also accelerate the playing time of new pieces (Foye, Miller, Oberto) and existing talent (Blatche). The return of a stable center in Haywood and a healthy All-Star in Bulter should keep the Wizards sailing.
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Paul Pierce’s nickname is “The Truth”. But can you believe him when he says the Celtics are going to win the NBA title this year?
Here is what Paul Pierce had to say as reported by Yahoo! Sports:
“Before the season even started last year, I was asked, ‘What is going to stop y’all from winning it all?’ ” Pierce said in a phone interview on Thursday. “The first thing I said was, ‘If we’re healthy, we’re going to win it all.’ And I’m going to say it again: ‘If we are healthy, we are going to win it all.’
Looking at their roster top to bottom, it is hard to find any team in the NBA packed with this much talent. Despite losing a hugely undervalued piece in Leon Powe to the Cavs, the addition of Rasheed Wallace makes the Celtics a better team. Also, factor in the ascendancy of Rajon Rondo and the Big Baby Davis, coupled with the Big 3 All-Stars of Pierce, Garnett, and Allen, and you have to think they are the odds on favorites to win.
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Three years ago, Gilbert Arenas was playing as well as anyone in the NBA. Though never rewarded as an MVP, he was on the short list of best players in the NBA and an NBA All-Star. Injuries and knee surgery derailed his surging career.
But new Washington Wizards coach, Flip Saunders, seems to think Arenas is back to full strength. Read his comments, as reported by Yahoo! Sports:
I don’t see any difference as far as the things that he does now that he was doing three years ago, when he was one of the MVP candidates
That is a scary proposition for the rest of the NBA East, even if you consider that the Wizards were embarrassing last year.After Eddie Jordan was fired 11 games into the season, injuries & inconsistent play sent this team spiraling to the bottom-depths of the NBA. But in the last 6 months, the Wizards have significantly upgraded a roster that produced a franchise-low 19 wins last season. Some of it has to do with players returning from injuries — notably Arenas but DeShawn Stevenson & Brendan Haywood were injured much of last season also.
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