This is the latest in a series here at FB&G that will run through the start of the season, focusing on some of the top teams in the West and maybe a couple from the East. Today we talk about recent rivals — the Suns. — Reed Last Season Record : 55-27 (sixth seed, but had the fourth-best record, just two games back of the Lakers) Last Playoffs : Lost to the Spurs in the first round in five games Offensive Ratin g: 109.5 Defensive Rating : 104.4 The Suns. No team currently evokes more spontaneous hatred, spite, fear, annoyance, and general negative emotion from me than the Suns. Im not exactly sure why. The Spurs are the natural rival, or enemy, right now the team we have regularly competed with for titles, dominance, and team of the decade honors.  read more »

So the Spurs came up big and got the Game 7 win over our Hornets here in New Orleans last night. Four losses in five games to end your season is tough to swallow, but it was a great ride nonetheless. For the last time this season, here's your news wrap...

We'll open it up with John DeShazier of the Times-Picayune...  read more »

Sweet. The Hornets just extended their road winning streak to seven games with a hard fought win over the Rockets in Houston. Here's how it all went down...

Pregame

Houston are riding a season-high five-game winning streak coming into this one, despite the absence of Tracy McGrady. He's missed the last nine games due to a knee injury and won't play today.

Cox ain't showing this game at all, so I'm tuning into the Rockets broadcast on League Pass. (FYI: Cox will show every Hornets game from here on out, save for March 5th vs. Atlanta.) The Rockets announcers are Bill Worrell, Clyde Drexler, and former Hornet scrub Matt Bullard. They list their keys for a Rockets victory this afternoon...  read more »

The Hornets took Game 5 at the Hive last night, securing a 3-2 series lead and putting the defending champion Spurs on the brink of elimination. Today, they had to delete all the porn off the internet so everyone would have room to talk about it. Here's what I found...

We'll open it up with words from Jim Eichenhofer's recap at The Official...  read more »

We're at about the midpoint of the Warriors 2007-2008 season. The good news is that if the regular season ended today the Warriors would be playoff bound for the second year in a row and are only 5.5 games out of the prestigious #1 seed in the mighty Western Conference. The bad news is that they are clinging to only a 0.5 game lead over the Utah Jazz for the right to not count ping pong balls in May.  read more »

Game Day! Round 2 tips tonight as the Hornets battle the Spurs in New Orleans at 9:00p.m. Central. We posted the full schedule for the series earlier, so check that out. Here's what everybody be talking about ahead of the big game...

First the big news: Kobe Bryant will be named MVP. Mike Bresnahan broke the story in the LA Times...  read more »

It's almost here. Hornets-Spurs. Game 7. Tonight at 7:30 Central. Ryan just delivered a fine post ahead of the madness. So go read that first. Then come back to this one and see what the internets been saying about the 100th Game 7 in NBA history.

To tip, Jim Eichnehofer was at Hornets practice yesterday, witnessing 47-year-old Byron Scott trying to dunk and Jannero Pargo clowning around...  read more »

Game 6 is done, the Spurs held serve at home, and now we wait for Game 7 on Monday. Lots to get to today with Hornets-Spurs being the only game last night and everyone in the world wanting to weigh in on a certain incident that occurred in the fourth quarter. Buckle up. This might take a while...

So, Horry's hit on David West. Was it an intentional, dirty play? At first I didn't think so but now I'm not so sure anymore. But hey, judge for yourself. Thanks to Page 3, we've got a picture of the precise moment of impact...  read more »

Memphis may be the happiest team in the league to see 2007 end. Riding a five game losing streak, 2nd longest in the league, and not being competitive in most of the games during that streak seemed a somewhat fitting end to a year that started with Tony Barone as coach and Pau Gasol asking for a trade. Not much went well in between either. Now the team has had some days off to recuperate and get focused on salvaging the 2nd half of the season. Rudy Gay has been struggling over the last 5 games hitting only 40% of his field goal attempts and a mere 52% from the line. Pau Gasol has been consistent only in failing to reach the level where people would be satisfied with his effort. Mike Miller failed to attempt a shot until midway through the 3rd quarter against San Antonio. Those are the Grizzlies top three scorers and explains why the team is struggling. Memphis needs to get their top players playing better as the role players feed off the big names. Mike Conley returns to his hometown in this game and could see significant minutes as he returns from his injured shoulder.  read more »