Boston vs. New York. The Knicks showed off their prize addition Tyson Chandler. He played 36 minutes and had just 3 rebounds but those 6 blocks sure are nice. Carmelo and Amare showed what they can do and Toney Douglas stated that he wasn't just going to hand the keys over to Baron when he's healthy. Iman Shumpert certainly wasn't shy about jacking up shots either. He took 13 shots in 22 minutes before spraining his MCL. That performance may have saved him from the JBL waiver wire.
The Celtics looked pretty good considering they were without Paul Pierce. Rondo had a 'F U' game after all the trade talk. He looked amazing. Allen and Garnett did exactly what Seoul would have expected from them. They just keep performing. I guess the real surprise was the play of Brandon Bass. He went for 20 and 11 in his Celts/Showers debut and I hope he continues to be the main big man off the bench this season in Beantown.
Miami vs. Dallas. We all saw this one coming didn't we??? Dallas would raise the championship banner and then the Heat would throttle them. Yup. Too easy to predict that one. Lebron and Wade were dominant. Bosh was terrible and will always be the #3 option on this team. The Heat got nice contributions from Haslem and Norris Cole. The rookie could be worth a look as the long term starter at PG in Miami.
Dallas looked old. Dirk, Terry and Marion all had decent games but Kidd, Carter and Haywood looked old and slow against the younger and quicker Heat players. Delonte West got some good minutes in the game and could be worth keeping an eye on. Is this the final season for Vince Carter? He's a $1 dollar player in the JBL now! Remember what he could do in his prime? Love him or hate him - he's almost done as a Fantasy contributor.
Chicago vs. LA Lakers. Awesome game back and forth despite sub-par shooting from both teams. Rose showed why he was MVP last season. So quick. Boozer, Deng and Noah all put in nice efforts. Deng is very under-rated in my books because of his defense. Love the Denger. Not much from Rip or the Bulls' bench in this game but they will be better in days to come.
The Lakers played very well against the Bulls despite missing Bynum for this game. Kobe looked magical at times but it's clear he's going to have to do more this season. Can he handle the workload? I love that McRoberts is endearing himself to Laker fans. He's being called McRambis because of how hard he plays. He'll stick in the JBL this season because of that work effort and he's a good 4th or 5th forward. Steve Blake looked decent and might be worth a look at some point this season. Troy Murphy didn't look lost out there but how many minutes will he get once Bynum comes back and will be eating up 30-35 minutes? Ebanks and World Peace split time and while their contributions are key for the Lakers - they don't appear to be JBL worthy right now.
Magic vs. Thunder. Poor Dwight. He's surrounded by marginal talent and the better teams will continue to double team him and force the ball elsewhere. J-Rich was horrible. Turkoglu was average. Jameer and Ryan Anderson had very good games. The bench in Orlando didn't look great. Big Baby and JJ Reddick struggled against the tough D of OKC.
The Thunder showed why they could be NBA Title favorites. Their defense was incredible and Durant dropped 30. He made it look easy too. Could he average 30 for the year? Maybe. Westbrook struggled with his shot and TO's but he's a nice Robin on this team. Harden had a very good game off the bench and really is instant offense. He reminds me a lot of Vinne Johnson. Super shot-blocker Serge Ibaka had a very quiet game while the new Jenny Craig version of Kendrick Perkins was solid against D12 but didn't have many stats to support his efforts.
Clippers vs. Warriors. The Clips appear to be 6-deep for fantasy. All the starters had good games and played over 30 minutes. Jordan had 8 blocks! Surprisingly, Blake didn't double down (22 & 7). I'm sure Benny didn't mind. Should Chauncey really be leading the team in shot attempts? And it looks like Mo Williams is ticked off on playing time already. Is it just me or does anyone else think Vinny Del Negro isn't the right guy to be leading/coaching this team?
The Warriors, despite the coaching change, look similar to last year. Fast tempo and jack a lot of shots. David Lee had a great game but others (Ellis, Curry, Wright) struggled with their shots. Biedrins looked really good despite his limited minutes. He will surely command big bucks off the waiver wire this Wednesday. Brandon Rush played way more than I expected on Sunday night. Is he part of the rotation? And is that what the Warriors envisioned when they signed Kwame Brown for 7 million bucks for one year? 6 minutes? Why did they bother?
Anyways, that's my take on the Christmas Day games. I was thoroughly entertained in the moments I was able to watch the games. I watched at least a quarter of every game I think and most of the Bulls/Lakers game. Isn't it awesome to be back watching the NBA and following the boxscores? Love it. Just love it.
Enjoy the full slate of games tonight. Cheers
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