Let me preface this by saying I’m a sucker for a good trailer.

If you want me to get excited about an upcoming movie release and you want my money to support said movie then you’re probably going to need to have produced a gripping trailer when you’re advertising this cinematic event.

It doesn’t even really need to be THAT good of a movie when it comes out. All you need to do is get me in the mood to see it and I’ll have a hard time finding ultimate failure in a movie. The last time I can remember being psyched by a quality trailer and just horrified by the finished product of a movie was with Righteous Kill. That was just an atrocious movie. The script was bad. The acting was bad. In fact, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino were so bad in the movie that I walked away thinking, “You know – 50 Cent is NOT that bad of an actor.”

The trailer doesn’t even have to be that gripping now that I think about it. It just needs a nice buildup before you unleash a certain song in the trailer that I’ve subconsciously wanted to listen to. With Righteous Kill, they brought me in with Please To Meet You by The Stones. With Brooklyn’s Finest, they brought me in with Run This Town by Jay-Z and Rihanna.

And with The Departed two songs drew me in – Gimme Shelter by the Stones and Shipping Up To Boston by Dropkick Murphys. Perhaps the two-song whammy is the reason I could never find that much fault with this movie. When I go back and watch it, it’s not terribly good. The accents are… interesting. The acting by Jack Nicholson is like watching Vince Carter in his final days of being a Toronto Raptor. And some of the dialogue is just perplexing. However, I still enjoy it thoroughly because of the music involved and my self-brainwashing going into the movie.

This is kind of how I feel about this Nuggets-Jazz series. I’m sold on the soundtrack. The dulcet tones of Chauncey Billups and Deron Williams trying to Bobby Fisher each other are enough. But you’ve also got the beautiful dance number of Carmelo Anthony’s offensive game playing over the inconsistency of his past playoff performances. I can get swept away in the cacophonous beats of JR Smith, Kenyon Martin, and Carlos Boozer all trying to endear their way of existing to us.

I mean this is just a murderer’s row of personalities, subplots and issues that will be playing on a consistent loop throughout the entire series. Regardless of how it plays out, I know that I’m sold on it. There could be four, five, six or seven atrocious games and I’ll be locked in based on the most superficial aspects of this series.

When you look at these two teams, they’re almost identical. They’re both very good offensive teams. They shoot the ball well. They get to the free throw line. They’re pretty decent defensively while challenging shots and forcing misses at almost the same rate of efficiency.

In fact, I don’t know that you could have a more evenly matched first round opponent in this year’s playoffs. So what does it come down to?

Simplicity.

What is the simplest way for each team to win games?

Here’s what we know about the Utah Jazz. They score the hell out of the ball and do so by getting a nice balance of inside-out scoring. They’re one of the top teams in the league in terms of scoring around the basket (63.5%, Fifth in the NBA) with the highest percentage (63.7%) of baskets around the basket coming from assists. They also shoot the ball very well from the outside. They knock down jumpers from 16-23 feet very well (40.7%, Sixth in the NBA) with the highest assist rate for these shots (77.2%, seven percent more than second place) to go with the seventh highest effective field goal percentage from three (54.6%).

(Thank you HoopData for the stats)

All of this is obviously because of Deron Williams. They can get into the heart of the defense whenever they need to. A lot of this has to do with dribble penetration that leads to players cutting towards the basket for easy scores. Deron Williams draws in the interior defense like a magnet. If the defense is able to create a wall and account for the cutters, they often will leave the perimeter shooters locked, loaded and without the safety on.

And this is the double-edged sword of how you defend the Jazz, especially when Deron Williams is on the court. You have to give in somewhere. If you’re allowing points inside, you’re probably also allowing free throw attempts and three-point plays due to late rotations and dumb fouls inside. But if you pack in the paint, you’re leaving deadly and timely outside shooters in the area that counts for the most points. So what do you do?

You have to form a pocket on defense. They’re least efficient from the middle of the floor. Put them in the 10 to 15-foot range and you’ve got your best chance of stopping them. There are no Rip Hamiltons on this team and Jeff Hornacek certainly isn’t walking through that door. You need to pack in the middle then swarm the perimeter in a furious effort of defensive rotations. The trick is keeping those interior guys in place and flanking the passing options. Make them run enough clock and the Jazz perimeter guys will have to pull up off the dribble for “bad” mid-range jumpers. It’s actually one of the simplest ways to try to bait a team into taking bad shots but it does take smart and disciplined defense.

With Denver, it’s sort of the same thing. They finish well inside and they shoot well from three. You want to force them into the mid-range area and pray that Carmelo Anthony isn’t the one taking those shots. They need to have a very simple game plan on offense. Pick-and-roll the Jazz to death with Chauncey Billups and make the Utah big men play on the perimeter. If they struggle to show on the screen, Chauncey can pull the jumper or drive into the paint. If the defense collapses, he can have Arron Afflalo and JR Smith in the corners, ready to knock in three-pointers from their hot spots.

The Nuggets will also need to get out in transition and try to knock down threes in these situations. The key will be finding JR Smith on the break and get him the ball in a position to rise and fire. JR Smith shot just 34% from three this season, which seems like a very manageable rate even when you factor in the quantity in which he shot them. But in transition, his percentage increased to 44% from three. Also, Carmelo Anthony is extremely efficient scoring on the break. His field goal percentage of 46% jumps up to 62% in transition. You can run with this team, especially when Ty Lawson is coming in for a change of pace, at a very efficient clip.

It sounds so simple for both teams. Get the ball into the areas you score with the highest efficiency. Push the tempo if you’re the Nuggets. Live off of dribble penetration and the chaos it creates if you’re the Jazz.

Don’t Forget To Pray For Health

This is where the series will ultimately be won – in the training room.

The Nuggets need Kenyon Martin to be healthy. When he’s healthy, he changes the game for opposing big men. Most players can’t handle the bulk and the versatility of the Boozer-Millsap combo inside. He’s always been able to neutralize what Carlos Boozer does offensively. He defends and challenges shots well while not letting Boozer live at the free throw line. While Millsap has been able to score at a highly efficient percentage of 63% in his career against K-Mart, Martin has still been able to match him point for point and rebound for rebound.

Kenyon Martin is a neutralizer inside defensively and that’s exactly what the Nuggets need to contain the power forward combination the Jazz throw at opponents.

In a similar way, this is what the Jazz need from Andrei Kirilenko. He’s the perfect defender for Carmelo Anthony. He’s long enough to bother jumpers. He’s agile enough to absorb the contact and still be able to recover when Carmelo makes his moves inside. He makes Melo work for his points and doesn’t really allow him to go crazy. Carmelo still gets his numbers but it’s rare that he goes NOVA against the Russian. In 19 career matchups, Carmelo Anthony has only scored 30 or more points five times against Kirilenko.

If Andrei Kirilenko can play then the Jazz have the man that can contain Anthony and that wins a huge battle for them. You’re then allowed to put Deron Williams up against Chauncey Billups one-on-one and when that happens I like Deron’s chances of being the better player. Then all you have to ask for is Wesley Matthews to be a pest for JR Smith and try to prevent him from getting in a rhythm from deep.

But again, this is all IF Kenyon and Kirilenko can be healthy.

Series Prediction
This may be the most fun series we see throughout the entire first round. Both teams like to push it like Salt ‘N’ Pepa. Both teams like to ramp up the offense. And both teams can play good enough defense to make the other team earn their points. There is no real throwaway aspect in this series. It’s just going to be seven very competitive games between two teams that are always hard to fully buy into. And the prize at the other end of the first round is a second round showdown with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Normally in these evenly matched 4-5 series I take the home team. I assume the house will be protected regardless and that the series will be seven straight wins by the home team. And when the team with home court advantage has the best player in the series (Carmelo Anthony) that seems to be even more of a no-brainer. However, I don’t trust the health situation of Kenyon Martin and I certainly don’t trust the depth of the big man rotation Denver employs. After Nene (who should dominate Mehemt Okur in every way) the Nuggets are relying on Chris Andersen and Johan Petro. Those are components of a great movie about a cross-country trip but they don’t exactly make me think, “Those are two guys who can contain the Boozer-Millsap hybrid.”

Then we get to the ultimate X-factor for me in this series – Deron Williams. We’ve seen some special things from Deron Williams over the past two years as he makes his case for best point guard in the NBA. This is his chance to truly prove he’s a cut above the rest. By getting the better of Chauncey Billups in a series in which he’s scheduled to play more road games than home he can truly shine and show the nearly perfect weapon he is. I tend to gravitate towards the best point guard of the series when two teams are this even.

With that I’ve got to take the Jazz to go the distance in this series. They’re least likely to knock off the Lakers in round two but that’s not their concern right now. Their concern is keeping their offensive attack simple and to execute it properly.

Regardless of how the series plays out, the trailer is pretty kick-ass.

Jazz Win in Seven

A little over a week ago, the Thunder and their fans were up in arms over poor officiating in their overtime loss to the Utah Jazz. There was good reason for the uproar. CJ Miles got away with slapping ten with Kevin Durant when the league’s leading scorer put up a game-winning attempt. The attempt fell short, the whistle of referee Tony Brothers remained silent and state of Oklahoma went nuts.

I warned that if they thought the officiating here was bad and a disaster, they should wait until they’re forced to deal with the officiating in a playoff series against the Lakers. At the time, the Thunder looked to be no worse than the sixth seed in the West. As fate would have it, they dropped to the eighth seed, setting up a showdown with the Lakers in the first round. And it certainly will be a showdown.

The war of the words has already started too. Phil Jackson came out and said that he thinks Kevin Durant is getting preferential treatment from the refs. This caused Kevin Durant to say Phil was being disrespectful. The dance begins!

This is actually perfect for Thunder fans to go through. It’s not that I want them to suffer in any way. But drawing the Lakers in the first round of their first playoff series as a new franchise (they’re basically brand new) is the equivalent of new fan base hazing. There is a certain naivety with the Thunder fan because they’ve been fortunate enough to see almost immediate success. Look at the Bobcats or the Grizzlies or the T’Wolves. Those teams didn’t get their stuff together in three years. Sure the Thunder had a head start with the remnants of the Sonics but to be a 50-win team so early is pretty damn incredible. And now they’re truly being thrown into Playoff Basketball 101.

This is what Phil Jackson does and essentially, this is what the playoffs are all about. It becomes a minefield of mind games. You have to watch your step. You’re strolling along and then all of a sudden… BOOM! Phil Jackson is working the refs through the media. You put yourself back together again, take another step and then… BOOM! Kobe Bryant is insulted at the idea of Thabo Sefolosha guarding him one-on-one.

The Kobe thing was made up but trust me, it will happen. And when it does, it’s going to piss you off. This is how the playoffs will go too. This is what happens.

BOOM! Serge Ibaka can’t seem to stay out of foul trouble.

BOOM! Jeff Green is getting push under the boards and not getting the call.

BOOM! Ron Artest just dyed Kevin Durant’s hair blonde mid-game.

BOOM! A Kardashian is stalking Eric Maynor.

These kinds of things happen when you’re facing the Lakers. This is the kind of thing that will toughen up a young, burgeoning franchise like the Thunder. It’s a good thing that they’re facing the Lakers in their first playoff series since moving to the middle of the country and it’s good that the fans will get a taste of just how frustrating the playoffs can be. Because when the Thunder eventually do win the whole damn thing and take each next step in order to do so, it’s going to feel 100 times more rewarding for the Thunder fans.

Like the title of this post says, we’re getting a showdown between David and Goliath only it looks like they both have a slingshot. David’s slingshot is accurate and deadly. He knows that someday his slingshot will take down every enemy in the land. However, Goliath isn’t alone with his slingshot.

Goliath is flanked by a slew of Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men. And they can flat-out hit the boards.

Unfortunately for Kevin Durant, he’s the only Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man on his squad. Jeff Green is fantastic at what he does when he does it. Nenad Krstic, Nick Collison and Serge Ibaka are all nice role-playing big men to have. Etan Thomas has funny hair, long arms that can challenge shots and a slew of poems to make Pau Gasol look deep inside his heart and figure out if the man in the mirror is truly happy with his beard or in need of a shave.

But they don’t have the length, size and skill of the Lakers frontcourt. If Andrew Bynum is healthy enough to play, the Lakers are going to own the boards. I mean OWN them. With the Lakers controlling every defensive rebound and getting the ball into the hands of Lamar Odom, Kobe Bryant or whatever Shannon Brown/Derek Fisher/Jordan Farmar hybrid is fronting as the point man. When that happens, the Lakers will get out and run. As good as the Thunder have been defensively this season, they are not that good with transition defense. It makes no sense to me but that’s the truth. The Lakers will know this and the Lakers will exploit this.

So What’s Something The Thunder Can Count On?
A weakness of the Lakers is a strength for the Thunder – the bench. The Lakers don’t have much to offer other than Lamar Odom off the bench. And when Andrew Bynum isn’t in uniform that means they have nothing to offer off the bench. Shannon Brown isn’t a very good NBA player. He’s a defensive athlete that isn’t that good at defense most of the time. Nobody quite knows what Jordan Farmar does out on the court. Sasha Vujacic has been in need of some maintenance for years now. Josh Powell and DJ Mbenga can be serviceable big men but at the same time they’re still Josh Powell and DJ Mbenga. Luke Walton used to play basketball but now he just draws pictures on a notepad.

This is where the Thunder can take advantage. Their best lineup this season in terms of +/- was Eric Maynor at point, James Harden at the two, Kevin Durant at the three and Serge Ibaka manning the paint with Nick Collison. When the Lakers go to their bench, the Thunder can counter with this lineup and wreak some havoc in the backcourt. Ibaka and Collison will be good enough defensively to handle the Lakers big men off the bench and possibly control the boards. They’ll also still have Durant doing Kevin Durant things on the wing.

This is how the Thunder can keep games close. When Kobe and/or Pau are out of the game, they have to either close the gap or extend the lead based on what the score is. If the bench can’t take advantage of their prowess over the Lakers bench then they are going to be struggling throughout this series.

What Will The Lakers Use To Tip The Scales?
Sometimes it’s as simple as experience when it comes to these kinds of series. A lot of people like to say that experience is overrated but it SO isn’t. The Lakers are already exemplifying how experience works by Phil Jackson setting a trap that Kevin Durant walked right into. But the biggest way the Lakers will flex their massive experience muscles will be at the end of games.

These games should be pretty close. The Lakers are 9-1 in their last 10 matchups against the Thunder and four of those games ended up being really close. The Lakers won all of them. The only game the Thunder won was a blowout late in the year on a night in which everything went right for the Thunder and everything went so very opposite for the Lakers. But when these games are close, you’re going to have to look at who has the better end of game option.

I don’t necessarily buy into the criticism that Kevin Durant isn’t clutch. Just because you miss the occasional jumper at the end of a game doesn’t mean you’re not clutch. Let’s say he never gets fouled on that play in Utah and he just flat out misses the shot. Does that lack of “clutchness” overshadow the fact that he went straight Iron Man on the Jazz when OKC was down 11 with three minutes to go? Not at all.

But look at the clutch stats according to 82games.com from this season. Kevin Durant shoots 39% from the field in the fourth quarter or overtime with less than five minutes left and neither team leading by more than five points. Kobe Bryant shoots 43.2% during these situations. Is that a huge differential? Not really. But the more telling stat to me is the way both players take care of the ball. Kobe averages 3.9 assists and 3.1 turnovers per 48 clutch minutes. He also gets assisted on just 19% of his made field goals during this time. Compare that to Durant’s 1.7 assists and 5.4 turnovers per 48 clutch minutes and the fact that Durant is assisted on more than half of his made field goals during clutch moments and that’s where I have to side with the Lakers experience, especially in crunch time over the Thunder.

Granted, I understand that the way the Lakers handle crunch time and the way the Thunder handle crunch time are completely different. But the Lakers still have a more full-proof plan at the end of games. They get the ball to Kobe and get the hell out of the way. The Thunder end up having Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant involved in a lot of plays in trying to find those clutch shots. Those are two guys that are prone to turnovers. So not only are you getting a lower percentage of shots falling with the Thunder’s best option but you also have a much lower chance of them getting the shot off due to being sloppy with the ball.

Kevin Durant is going to be a cold-blooded hitman at the end of games some day. He’s already molding his way into one. But it’s not there yet and it’s certainly not enough to beat Kobe Bryant with the refs and aura of experience emanating from him, his teammates and his head coach.

Series Prediction
Overall, I think it will be a highly competitive series. The Thunder are good defensively and they have the best scorer in all of basketball this season. They have a point guard that will feast on the inadequacy of the Lakers point guards. Russell Westbrook should be imitating what we saw from Rajon Rondo in the series against the Bulls last April. He’ll rack up triple-doubles in nearly every game. The Thunder should be able to put themselves on the map with the national audience and do so in a very positive way.

However, the Lakers will be smart about the way they approach this series. They’ll have Ron Artest hounding Kevin Durant, making life difficult in every movement on the court. Do I think Ron Artest can shut down Durant? Not at all. But he’ll make him work for everything he gets. He’ll have Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom showing hard on every screen-and-roll involving Durant. He’ll have defensive length covering nearly every inch of the halfcourt and making Durant second guess each decision. Eventually, Durant will calm down and put on an offensive display of fantastic proportions. I just don’t think it will be enough to take down the force of the Lakers in the playoffs.

I begrudgingly welcome the Thunder fans to life in the playoffs. You’re going to hate going against the Lakers. You’ll learn what many of us have experienced over a decade of dominance and calls going against your team without rhyme or reason. But you’ll be better off for it in the long run… especially with this team of yours.

Lakers Win in Six

“I was watching Court TV and I found a loophole in your case. I’m gonna talk to the judge about a writ of Habeas Corpus. I’ll put the SYSTEM on trial.” – Jim Carrey, Cable Guy.

Something really weird happened during the final game of the Warriors and Blazers regular season on Wednesday night. A basketball game was happening while a competition committee hearing broke out.

The situation was fairly simple: Don Nelson was being forced to play injured members of his team. When Devean George fouled out with just under four minutes to go in the game, Don Nelson wanted to keep him in the game and accept the applicable technical foul that came with doing such a thing. He’d already done it earlier in the season when Stephen Curry fouled out of a game and was allowed to keep playing. But during that game, the Warriors didn’t have eligible players in uniform sitting on the bench.

Before we go any further, watch the video I cut together from the game.

Here are some of my thoughts, reactions and things of note from this video:

- Nellie tried to let referee Phil Robinson know initially that Chris Hunter wasn’t going to come into the game. He wanted to keep Devean George in and take the technical foul. However, Eddie F. Rush takes control of the situation and explains to the Warriors coaching staff that the three eligible players (Anthony Morrow, Chris Hunter and Ronny Turiaf) were going to have to play before that could happen. In his mind and in the minds of the NBA rules, these guys should be playing in the game. Although I wanted to disagree with the referees (and did), they were ultimately correct. The Warriors tried to skate by the last game of the season without signing anymore players despite the fact that they were chock-full of injuries.

- It was brutal seeing Chris Hunter dragging his leg up and down the court. I know the Warriors were caught up in the moment a bit and didn’t really know how to approach it but I would have kept him on defense and never had him try to cross halfcourt. Especially when Chris Hunter gets knocked down on the blocking foul and is trying to get up, you know that had to have Nellie seething at this situation.

- At the 2:11 mark, I love that Nellie screams, “you’re supposed to know the rules.” It does actually seem like the refs were following the rules even though for the safety of the players involved there could be an exception made.

- Once Hunter is taken out of the game for good and Devean George is once again denied entry like a group of guys at a Vegas night club, I love the strategy that Nellie implements. Put Turiaf in, let him commit a foul right away and pull him from the game. Then when there’s a stoppage of play after Morrow goes in, pull him from the game too so that Devean George HAS to be allowed to come back in.

- For those of us that have chastised Nellie this season and the past couple seasons for not caring about his job, it’s nice to see how disturbed he was by this whole incident. He genuinely hated having to put Chris Hunter, Ronny Turiaf and Anthony Morrow into this game. He was worried for their health and safety as if he was a concerned parent.

- How about that blocked shot by Hunter?!?

- Everyone that was watching this game and not a Blazers fan was rooting for a Devean George game-winner. It would have sparked a crap hurricane throughout the media world.

- I think we’ll see this rule revisited with the competition committee in some way. Maybe it won’t be changed because after all, Nellie and the Warriors were fudging the injury report a bit. However, there has to be a way for a coach to be able to avoid bringing in his injured players.

- Stephen Curry goes OFF. 26 points in the second half for him and he scored 11 of the Warriors final 14 points to win this game. He capped off a fantastic rookie season with a 42-point effort. He’s in the same zone that I felt Allan Houston was in when he played. I can’t remember a single jumper that either player has ever missed in their careers. As far as I’m concerned, Curry and Houston have never missed a jump shot before.

- I don’t know how you could possibly not love Nellie after watching that video.

The news that Carmelo Anthony may miss this summer’s World Championship is actually far more gripping than the possibility of LeBron James or Dwyane Wade sitting the summer out, if only because Team USA has meant more to Carmelo than it has to any other player in the history of the program. Every NBA star rises with the aid of some propulsive force: Kobe Bryant’s work ethic, LeBron James’ divine right, Dwight Howard’s physical domination. It’s the means through which tremendous athletes gifted with timing, balance, and coordination are able to tap into something insanely powerful. For Carmelo, that force was USA Basketball. International play has acted as a catalyst for Anthony’s success and advanced his narrative in ways we never thought possible.

Carmelo Anthony was something of a star from the moment he stepped into the league. Fresh off an utterly dominant run through the NCAA tournament in 2003, Melo the pro was birthed a 20-point a night scorer. That scoring punch drove the Nuggets to the playoffs for the first time since 1995, and though Minnesota dispatched Denver rather quickly in the first round, Anthony’s arrival signified the beginning of a new era of Nuggets basketball.

Of course, it was hardly enough. Though Melo was the team leader in scoring by a substantial margin in his rookie season, he also attempted 500 more field goals than anyone else on the team. His effective field goal percentage was just .449, which made him about as efficient of a scorer in ’03-’04 as Baron Davis was this year (.446 eFG%). It’s still impressive for a rookie to manage that kind of output right off the bat, but unlike most first-year players, Anthony’s career was born with a silver spoon full of minutes and touches. That’s an essential component of any player’s production, but also a young player’s developmental process. Combine those conditions with Anthony’s scoring instincts, athleticism, and natural talent, and it seemed like only a matter of time before Melo made the jump to full-fledged superstar.

That process began during the 2005-2006 season (in which Anthony’s eFG% jumped to .493, and his points per 36 minutes by 4.5), but was truly crystallized in the 2006 FIBA World Championships. Even though the USA finished a disappointing third place thanks to poor pick-and-roll coverage against Greece in the semifinal game, Anthony was the clear on-court leader. He was the fifth youngest player on the 12-man roster and hardly the most accomplished or talented American to play in the championships, but he ranked 6th in the tournament in scoring at 19.8 points per 40-minute game, and was the only American named to the All-Tournament team. Melo’s unique combination of quickness, mid-range shooting, and size set him up for all kinds of success in international pla, and succeed he did. When Anthony returned to NBA action in the fall, all traces of his old, volume-scoring self had been erased; he made a big jump in per-minute scoring while maintaining an almost identical level of shooting efficiency from his tremendous ’05-’06 campaign.

The following two off-seasons were also accompanied by stints with USA Basketball (and more importantly, Anthony’s USA teammates), and the seasons that followed showed similar jumps in production. Melo’s most impressive international performance came in 2007′s Tournament of the Americas, in which he averaged 21.2 points per game in just 19.4 minutes (Leandro Barbosa was the only player to best Anthony in points per game, and he played 12.6 extra minutes per contest and could only muster a 0.6 points per game margin over Anthony). Melo spent the off-season training with the likes of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Jason Kidd, and returned to the Nuggets a complete offensive player. He notched a .511 eFG% (partially thanks to a +4.0% increase in FG% from 10-15 feet and a +5.0% increase from 16-23 feet), significantly improved his rebounding rate, became a legitimate three-point threat for the first time in his career, and bumped up his assist rate.

However, the 2008 Olympics were, by Anthony’s standards, underwhelming. He managed just 11.5 points per game as a member of the gold medal team, but managed to surprise in another regard: with his defense. D was the calling card of Team USA, despite the fact that the roster was regarded as something of a glorified All-Star team.That couldn’t have been further from the truth, as the Americans occasionally struggled in their half-court offense against stronger opposition, but managed to decimate their opponents with lockdown defense. Those Olympics seemed like week-long alley-oop clinic because Team USA was able to create turnovers and get out on the break, where the difference in athleticism between the Americans and their opponents was the most pronounced.

Such impressive team defense didn’t happen by accident. It came through focus, intensity, and preparation, and in just a few months Anthony was transformed as a defender. Kevin Arnovitz documented Melo’s drastic defensive improvements last May:

Spend some time around the Denver Nuggets this spring and you’ll hear how Carmelo Anthony’s commitment on the defensive end of the floor has a lot to do with the team’s success. When you ask people who know Anthony where that dedication came from, you get an almost uniform response: As a member of Team USA last summer in Beijing, Carmelo rubbed shoulders with the most professional players in the game, and through the Olympic Rehabilitation Program for Uninterested Defenders, he saw the light. He realized that while his offense will always keep him in the conversation for Best Scorer on the Planet, if he was sincere about being a Top 5 player, he’d have to get serious about his defense.

This improvement can be traced as a natural development in Anthony’s game if so desired, but his involvement with Team USA at the very least acted as a hell of a catalyst.

I tell you all of this not to lament over Anthony’s absence or to provide a survey of his Team USA career. Instead, Melo’s development functions as a case study that’s pertinent now more than ever. As the LeBrons and Wades of the world inevitably wane in their excitement and commitment to USA Basketball, the American roster will experience considerable turnover. Veterans like Kidd will ride off into the sunset, and other USA mainstays will surely follow the paths of stars like James and Wade. That turnover not only means emerging stars will need to take up the mantle, but it also opens up a pretty incredible developmental opportunity.

While I’d like to pretend that such player development is directly attributable to the structure of the system or even Coach K, the noble leader/recipient of a solid book deal, neither is the case. Anthony spelled out USA Basketball’s power of reform explicitly, and it lies with the member of Team USA that is far more important than LeBron. James may be the world’s best player, but the most crucial element of our nation’s basketball program is its elder statesman, Kobe Bryant. Kobe remains firmly committed to Team USA barring injury, and is even more valuable to the national team for his will than his skill; his most valuable contribution in 2008 was giving the squad its defensive identity, and creating a similar defensive fervor in the likes of Carmelo and LeBron. Even THE CHOSEN ONE made the leap from unwilling and uninterested defender to All-NBA defense with the benefit of Bryant’s influence.

Many of the players recently named to the USA roster are incredible in their own right, but all of them boast incomplete games. Even the more versatile talents (Jeff Green, Andre Iguodala, Russell Westbrook) could benefit from a more singular focus. Plus, if Carmelo was able to successfully make the transition from great scorer to All-World scorer to fringe MVP candidate, can you even imagine what kind of evolution USA Basketball could inspire in Kevin Durant? Danny Granger? LaMarcus Aldridge? O.J Mayo? These guys are all terrific players, but could certainly benefit from a bit of Bryant-inspired osmosis.

Ideally, that is the future of the program. Kobe stays around long enough to make the defensive intensity a tradition, and in doing so inspires a wave of stars spearheaded by the likes of Durant, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, and Deron Williams. Those players, in turn, dedicate their time to USA Basketball until they grow tired of the competition and the commitment, leaving the next wave to lead the way with a similarly imposed focus for defense and improvement. Thus is the enduring legacy of Kobe Bryant and Jerry Colangelo: Team USA could ultimately become a training ground for the NBA’s elite, a formative step reserved for the league’s best and brightest. The program’s allure will always lie in its exclusivity (supposing that said exclusivity involves a high level of intra-roster competition), but its real value is in this untapped developmental concept. The best thing Bryant can do for Team USA isn’t to win medals or have terrific performances in international play, but to turn USA Basketball into a superstar factory. Carmelo provides the blueprint, but right now only Kobe has the tools to build it.

The home portion of the Milwaukee Bucks' regular season is over, and the franchise averaged 15,108 fans per game at the Bradley Center.

That's down just 281 fans per game, although most fans coming to the Bradley Center saw a lot of empty seats in which the reported attendance was higher.

With the regular season nearly over, the Bucks will finish 24th in the league in attendance, the very same ranking they had the previous season.

via Officially, Bucks’ attendance dips – JSOnline.

Oh, come the hell on, Milwaukee. You’re killing me here. What, the superstar rookie point guard who will finish top three in ROY voting and would finish second if anyone took a second to notice Stephen Curry gets taken to the hole more than John Meyer wasn’t enough? The competitive games night in and night out? The defensive player of the year candidate who would probably have been an MVP candidate if he added a better mid-range and played in a bigger market wasn’t enough? The awesome atmosphere caused by the cheering squad? No go? You have better things to do?

What, you needed to work on your tan at the beach? Some cool new exhibit at the art museum? Too many options in the hustle and bustle of Milwaukee?

For the love of everything holy, your team is the six seed! They’ve pushed every Eastern conference contender this season! They’re really good! Why would you not go?

It’s stunning to me that the Bucks improved not at all with all the good will that’s been hoisted upon them. How is Kohl going to justify sinking more money into it at this point? I guess the same way he’s justified it for the last decade. 24th? 20FREAKINGFOURTH?

You and Memphis should get together and NOT watch a basketball game some time.

Evans probably would have secured the achievement whether he was permitted to chase it or not. With a player that talented and that crucial to a franchise’s future, the game should have been about winning the game and nothing else. Instead, the Kings demonstrated that individual achievement sometimes matters more than winning. Naturally then, the Kings lost the game and maybe more.

In a season going nowhere, the Rockets won a game and self-respect.

-Jonathan Feigen, Houston Chronicle, Chron.com

Whoa, there, Jonny! You’re going to break your leg going up on that high a horse! Come on back down!

Seriously, the Houston Chronicle writer went off today blasting the Kings fans for having the audacity to cheer for an individual accomplishment for the best rookie performance since LeBron James in a game between two lottery squads in the second-to-last game of the season. THE BASTARDS.

I feel like I’ve entered into some bizarre universe where mainstream writers are calling out everyone over things which do not matter. Got news for you there, Jonny. This game? DIDN’T MATTER.

But what about the spirit of competitio…

DIDN’T MATTER.

But you should always try to get the wi…

DIDN’T MATTER.

Well, that’s fine, but Houston gets to walk away with the wi…

DOESN’T MATTER.

This game? Meant nothing. Has no impact on anything. It pads the stats of its players and was meant to entertain the Kings faithful. And entertain it did, because even though they lost, instead of moping around and booing or checking their calendars for when their next tanning appointment is like the average Staples crowd, the crowd was plugged in.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. The Rockets were going to win that game because they’re the better team. But they weren’t playing for anything, either. They weren’t competing for a playoff spot. This game didn’t affect seeding. This was just a game between two teams who will be on vacation in two days. So who cares if Evans tried to get the stats. What’s it matter?

Furthermore, the Kings need draft help. NEED IT. Not every team is getting a seven foot Chinese dude with awesome touch and .25 good feet back next season. The loss helped them. Every loss helps them at this point. People criticize tanking. Well the Kings didn’t tank last night. They just tried to do something other than win. Giving it to your best player and watching him jack up crazy shot after crazy shot? Kobe Bryant almost won an MVP in 2006 that way. So let’s cool it with all the judgment there. Kevin Martin had himself a fine game after he’d already failed to help get the Rockets into the playoffs like he was supposed to. Good for him. But Evans was the story. Of the game, of the fans, of the night.

Geez.

Video via Nothing Easy.

This is the most persuasive argument I’ve heard yet for Chris Bosh staying in Toronto.

Gerald and I are similar in this way: We’re both small-town kids who learned to live in big cities. I think you learn patience in places where the train passes twice a day. You don’t become a cynic in your teens and you figure out how to watch and learn.

So I wanted to know what Wallace thought about taking on the Magic, and he got just what I was asking. He appreciates that while many in this group have been to the playoffs, they haven’t been there together. And he knows Dwight Howard is a player who should be respected but not feared.

We talked a bunch about Orlando’s 3-point shooters and how to take Howard out of his comfort zone by making him guard screen-and-rolls away from the basket. But then Gerald said something more basic, but no less valid: That for them to have any chance to beat the Magic, they need to challenge Howard, and that means driving at him. Because if you let that guy get in your head so much that you don’t try to get to the rim there’s not much reason to fly the charter down to Orlando.

That’s the uncomplicated savvy you develop in a little town in Alabama. It travels well.

via Inside the NBA: Wallace gets it about Magic.

And so it is that Charlotte will be welcomed to the playoffs against one of the most dominant offensive teams in basketball. We’ll talk a lot in the coming days about the matchups and play and schemes in the next few days, and a LOT about what it means for this franchise, beleaguered, mocked, and degraded by smart writers everywhere, to make the playoffs.

But for right now, put this one in the back of your head. Because even if they can’t do it. Even if Jackson’s tendencies and the poor passing of the bigs and the length of the Magic derail their intentions, the Bobcats get it, just like Bonnell’s headline suggests. They know what it’s going to take. You want to beat the Magic? Are you the most talented team in the league? No? Then you’re going to have to punch them in the mouth. And you’re going to have to do it every quarter for as many games as it goes and pray that a few three pointers rattle out.  The only shot the Bobcats have is to take this out of the spread-it-out, make-it-rain game that Orlando adores and into a painful, brutal grind, something subterranean of the type of game the Celtics aspire to. They need to get so deep beneath the surface into the muck and grime that the sulfer singes their nostrils.

They have 24 fouls to use on Howard between Chandler, Ratliff, Nazr, and Thomas. They need to use every single one of them. And they have to keep going at him. Unrelentingly, and without fear. It’s what Crash was made for. A situation where he has to ignore the physical risks that suggest he should stick to the perimeter, to the edges, and simply go bone-on-bone to the rim and force Howard into uncomfortable places (like the back of a Volvo).

It’s their shot. It may be the only one they get.

Bombs away.

And now, for something completely different. (Slightly NSFW due to language.)

Golden State High – Episode 1: “Playing With Fire” from Mike Karnell on Vimeo.

There’s a ton of ways the Playoffs could end up seeded, still, and by tonight we SHOULD know a lot more. Here’s what is set in stone:

(1) Lakers vs. (8) Thunder
(2) Magic vs. (7) Bobcats

Everything else is up for grabs. Here’s how you should hope things work out.

(2) Mavericks vs. (7) Spurs: These two always give great head-to-head matchups. The Mavericks are one of only two teams to eliminate the Spurs in the last ten years. Dirk vs. Duncan, Jefferson vs. Matrix, Ginobili vs. Butler, Kidd vs. Parker, this one’s chock-full of playoff goodness. The Spurs want revenge for last year, the Mavs will get up for this one as well .

(3) Denver vs. (6) Portland: The Nuggets don’t have a coach. The Blazers don’t have a center. The Nuggets have just gotten Kenyon Martin back. The Blazers may have just lost Brandon Roy. Neither team is at their peak right now, so I’d like to quarantine these two.

(4) Utah vs. (5) Phoenix: POINTS! MORE POINTS! LOTS O’ POINTS! You get Deron versus Nash, Wesley Matthews versus JRich. AK (possibly) versus Grant Hill. Amar’e and Boozer (LOLLERSKATES), and Jared Dudley and Kyle Korver on the floor at the same time. This series would be kind of a qualifying statement for both. Most people have doubts about both teams’ status as contenders, this would solve it for the winner and loser.

(1) Cleveland versus (8) Bulls: Sorry, Toronto. You’re just too much of a mess defensively. Neither team has the matchup advantages to cause any noise, but at least the Bulls feature Rose and Noah. We don’t want to see LeBron put up 60-18-15-5-5 just because of your crazy lack of defense and pace. We want him to get it because Luol Deng cannot guard him at all.

(3)Hawks versus (6)Bucks: The Hawks are the most likely team to have trouble with the Bucks without Bogut, since Horford is great but not dominant. The Bucks have the second most made three pointers this season, did you know that? That would be a nice counter to the Hawks, and might make for some hot nights. Jennings versus Bibby would be a scream, and Ilyasova-Smith is also high comedy. This would be more like a buddy cop show than a playoff series.

(4)Boston v. (5)Heat: Let’s just go ahead and put two completely uninspiring teams against one another. The Heat have zero shot of advancing against any team in the top four, so let’s put them against the team that somehow always manages to struggle in the first round. It’ll be fun. Plus, Boston fans freaking out over the calls Wade gets will be hi-ho-hilarious.