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 »

Four years ago, Kevin Martin averaged 2.6 field goal attempts and 1.2 free throw attempt per game, for a scoring average of 2.9 pts. per game.

Three years ago, Kevin Martin averaged 7.6 field goal attempts and 3.1 free throw attempts for a scoring average of 10.9 pts. per game.

Two years ago, Kevin Martin averaged 13.3 field goal attempts and 7.1 free throw attempts for a scoring average of 20.2 pts. per game.

Last year, Kevin Martin averaged 15.0 field goal attempts and 9.5 free throw attempts for a scoring average of 23.7 pts. per game.

For Martin's career, if you take his shot attempts and free throw attempts and add them together, it comes pretty close to matching his scoring average.

In the 15 games that Ron Artest did not play last year and Kevin Martin did, he averaged 28.7 points pers game, which would have been good for 2nd in the NBA in scoring, behind only LeBron James. Martin actually finished 6th in scoring (7th if you include non-qualifier Dwyane Wade).  read more »

Regular readers of this site know Xavier, a professional basketball coach living in Barcelona (who recently earned a well-deserved promotion). He has a very good blog although the updates have been slow because he’s been working. The guy knows his stuff, and he has seen most of the world’s basketball teams much more than we have, so he was kind enough to do a little scouting report for this blog. Enjoy. Teams to beat While sorting the teams and ranking them, there were only 2 with more than 8 players other teams should take pretty serious and those teams were Spain and USA. USA On paper, this team is the greatest ever since 92 Dream Team. You dont need me to tell you about these guys but I can help with how they fit into FIBA ball.  read more »

I just got back from watching a near-flawless performance by our New Orleans Hornets in Game 2 of the NBA Playoffs. They came out breathing fire in the first quarter and dumped 39 points on the freshly adjusted Mavericks. A nice start indeed, but a basketball game is made up of four of those period thingys, and not even the NBA's computers could remember the last time the Hornets had put together 48 minutes of great basketball. Surely the fantasticness couldn't last all game.

But yes, it did. The Hornets kept the pedal to the metal and refused to let Dallas make any kind of run to get back in it, maintaining a double-digit lead all through the second half, and building the advantage as high 28 points in the fourth quarter. The 17,855 fans in attendance were prepared for a let down after that exhilarating finish to Game 1 on Saturday, but instead they were treated to another four quarters of dominance by the home team.  read more »

First things first. I love Ron Artest. Love, love, love, love, love him. LOOOOOOOOOOVE HIM!!!

I also loved a woman prior to meeting and falling in love with Mrs. section214. And I loved her. Loved, loved, loved, loved her. LOOOOOOOOOOVED HER!!! Alas, the woman was not dependable and could not commit, and we eventually parted ways.

It's a dependability issue with Ron Artest as far as I am concerned. My fear is that Ron Artest will do a Fredo Corleone on me. You broke my heart, Ron-Ron, you broke my heart.

Ron Artest is also (when he plays) the best player on the Sacramento Kings. Bar none. Better than Kevin Martin, better than Brad Miller, better than the recently departed Mike Bibby.

Since Ron is our best player, I decided to run his dependability against some of the other best players in the league. This is a random sampling of a dozen of the game's best. Most have played longer than Ron, a couple as long, a few less than Ron. All of these guys played a significant amount in their rookie year, including Ron (72 games). The numbers are what they are, I was trying to prove to myself one way or the other whether or not Ron Artest was more or less or equally as dependable as the other players that he compares himself to.  read more »

(Boulder-CO) Even without Carmelo Anthony, the Nuggets showed the Dallas Mavericks that they really arent anything special. And despite spinning their wheels early, the Nuggets were right with the Mavericks down the stretch as Anthony Carter and Dirk Nowitzki matched each other trey for trey with Dirk having the last laugh. The Nuggets lose, 90-85, and extend their road losing streak to five games, but there were a lot of good things that can be taken from this game and built upon in preparation for the looming postseason. Denver came out in the first quarter and was really out of synch. The Nuggets only mustered 15 points in the first quarter and 19 in the second while shooting a dreadful 32% from the field.  read more »

It's game day, and with it comes a massive dose of news articles and blog posts. Some highlights...

To start, here's an observation from Elias over a ESPN.com...

• Paul is the first player in league history to have at least 35 points and at least 10 assists in his first NBA playoff game.

Nice.

Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com recalls the Nets firing Byron Scott in 2004, and essentially calls Jason Kidd a damn fool for instigating the whole thing...  read more »